The Unwanted Gathering of Main Characters - 1
Not long after I finished my call with the deputy, I spotted the secretary who had been standing beside the principal racing toward me in a fluster. He announced that he would show me to my lodging for the duration of the dispatch and promptly led the way.
"The students' stares must have been quite uncomfortable for you. I apologize for not guiding you to your quarters sooner."
The secretary bowed his head again and again as he spoke, yet the real motive beneath the words felt slightly different. With some unknown outsider wandering the Academy without pause, plenty of people must have been asking what on earth was going on. Harried by a line of student complaints, the faculty had clearly dispatched the secretary in a hurry.
"There's really no need to apologize."
I answered that way and fell silent. Judging by how far he had come from the main building, he must have searched quite thoroughly. He could not exactly stop an Audit Officer's movements, and he must have been thoroughly squeezed between the anxious, questioning students—many of them blue-blooded—and their flood of grievances. Since we would be seeing a great deal of each other from now on, I felt a twinge of awkwardness for having been so oblivious.
Have I spent so long looking at nothing but idiots?
Four years since the family head's schemes had shoved me into civil service life. Of those four years, one thing after another had piled up until I was promoted to Audit Department Chief—something completely outside my destiny—and I had been bickering with those three bastards for a full two years already.
I had reached the point where ordinary communication with normal people felt alien. Didn't this count as an industrial accident? If it were a black company, you could at least report it to the country, but when the country that employs the civil servants is itself a black country, where exactly do you file the complaint…?
With a heavy heart I sighed inwardly and quietly followed the secretary until we arrived at the lodging where I would be staying. It was a room formerly used by section-chief-level Audit Officers, so it was decent enough.
"It is rather shabby for an Audit Officer of your standing, but there were no other rooms free at the moment. We will prepare another as quickly as—"
"Ah, there's no need. I like it."
I had just been thinking it was fine, so what would it make me if I let him keep talking like that? I waved off the secretary who kept trying to bow, insisted it was perfectly acceptable, and sent him back to the main building. Keeping him hovering would only make him keep reading my mood. Even without that, an Audit Officer overturning the Academy was already frightening enough; if the man was department-chief rank, how much more terrifying would he seem?
But it was not as though I had come because I wanted to, so if anyone needed blaming I hoped they would blame the minister. That minister fellow—he would probably live a long life just on the curses I had already thrown at him; he might even achieve immortality.
Wondering whether starting to praise the minister right now would trigger a sudden death, I sat on the edge of the bed. Even though I had already taken in the Academy and seen the protagonist Luise, only now did it truly sink in that I had arrived. It felt exactly like sitting on a bunk in the training-camp barracks right after enlistment and finally feeling the reality of military service. Fucking hell.
Anyway, starting tomorrow I would have to live Academy life as an Audit Officer. Have to… but…
Damn it.
The moment I thought of the work awaiting me at the Academy, the road ahead looked bleak. The usual duty of Audit Officers—investigating funds—was something that could be finished after a few quick glances. After all, even at its longest, Audit Officer work that wrapped up within a week was nothing special.
Moreover, because of its importance the Academy was already thoroughly grilled even in peacetime, so there was nothing left worth combing through with an audit. There was a reason the legend circulated that previous Audit Officers would legally set aside their original duties and dawdle around simply to remain at the Academy.
But that did not apply to me.
Luise, Erich, Ainter, Ryutis, Later, Tanian.
There was one spy sharing the same blood among them, but in any case I had to keep indefinite watch on these six. The problem was how exactly to conduct that surveillance.
The sudden enrollment declarations by key figures from the Three Kingdoms had made their foreign ministries shed tears of blood and wail. They desperately pounded on the doors of the Imperial Foreign Ministry to somehow protect their own people.
They even made the unreasonable request of sending their own forces onto Imperial soil, and of course the Empire answered with "That's enough of that bullshit." It was impossible unless the entire Foreign Ministry was high on opium.
But with the safety of royalty and a leading Saint candidate at stake, the Three Kingdoms' foreign ministries went out of their minds. They steadily, desperately tried to negotiate. The Foreign Ministry, feeling as though they were receiving spam calls all weekend morning, finally permitted a small contingent to be stationed at the Academy on the condition of submitting a list, and withdrew part of the Imperial army.
Looking at the list the Foreign Minister had prepared for me, there were even members of the royal knight orders and holy knight orders. It was no joke.
Those bastards may have been few in number…
But their combat power was absolutely not something a small number could produce.
As a result the Empire also took the opportunity to pull people out and thoroughly replace them with a small elite force—more thoroughly than the forces sent by the Three Kingdoms. Anyway, the Empire's justification was that they had reduced the numbers as requested. If the others didn't like it, what could they do? The Empire held the cards.
Through this something dressed up as a concession, the Foreign Ministry managed to adjust some of the treaties they had long been pushing and pulling with the Three Kingdoms in a more favorable direction. But it pissed me off. I was the one being sold off, so why were the Foreign Ministry bastards the ones throwing a bonus party?
Anyway, the important point was that even if small in number, several forces from the Three Kingdoms were now stationed at the Academy. They would have noticed that this Audit Officer was of a different form from previous ones, and that the Empire had stuffed excess forces beyond the agreement under the pretext of regular Audit Officer dispatch.
For a guy like that to hang around near their key personnel and keep watch? Ah, even I wouldn't be able to stand that. The head of the guards might come running right away and try to grab me by the collar.
And while the numbers themselves really have decreased…
They had transformed into a small elite force with almost no loss in combat power, yet the fact that the numbers had dropped was true. No matter how superhuman, a body is still only one. Unless shadow clones existed, situations they could not fully cover could arise.
Fortunately the existing Academy resident forces had been in excess, so even after the withdrawal they still maintained a decent setup. The problem was that I also had to keep watch on the cracks produced by the sudden reduction.
"Fucking hell."
I finished organizing my thoughts. I had vaguely known it was a shitty situation; now I knew it was specifically a shitty situation.
A sigh escaped on its own. Still, with Imperial and Three Kingdoms forces plus the Academy staff present, as long as no lunatics deliberately dove into the Academy, problems with the Academy itself would not explode. In the end the problem circled right back to the miracle six.
…Honestly, Erich was the lowest tier among those six, so couldn't I just think of them as the five? He was my little brother, but facts were facts—what could I do about it?
In the end, naturally approaching the five was the key issue. But as things stood, there was no means of getting close while piercing the Three Kingdoms' suspicions. Guards loosened a little during classes, yet even I as an Audit Officer had no justification for approaching students who were in the middle of lessons.
Student audit? Student, I'm an Audit Officer—mind if I check your wallet? Oh, is this guy insane?
No choice. For now I would have to watch from a distance and seize opportunities. Having reached a conclusion that was basically putting everything on hold, I leaned my back against the bed. Wouldn't some legal reason to approach them just appear somehow?
The second week of the new semester. It was the period when freshmen had to choose one of the countless clubs that existed at the Academy and join. Of course, since blue-blooded students made up the majority, club membership centered far more on forging close personal connections than on pure interest.
Moreover, under the name of club seniors one could even form ties with graduated nobles, so clubs were another social venue inside the massive social venue that was the Academy.
For Luise, who purely liked people, such complicated considerations never entered her mind. The idea of friends from various years and different classes gathering in one place to enjoy the same hobby suited her heart perfectly. Ever since she had coincidentally heard about clubs from her father, Luise had been looking forward to them with great excitement.
But was it a prank of the heavens that wanted to mess with such a Luise? Upon learning that it was possible not merely to join a club but to establish a new one, Luise tried to open one—only to hit a wall. Establishing a club required three students and someone to serve as advisor. Luise had thought gathering a mere three people would be easy, yet she failed.
Even when she invited friends including Irina, the answer came back that they had already joined other clubs. No matter how much they liked Luise, as nobles they could not abandon clubs that performed social functions. Of course if it were something Luise desperately needed they would have considered it, but it was only a club after all, wasn't it?
"Luise. Let's just join another club."
The only person who had accepted Luise's invitation. At Erich's words Luise hung her head dejectedly. If she had never known that new establishment was possible, she would not have been this disappointed.
"But… I wanted to make a Baking Club…"
Faint moisture welled in her sky-clear blue eyes. Erich felt sorry seeing that, yet what could he do? He could not write "E," "rich" on the club member list, could he? And as if the heavens were satisfied with having messed with her this much, they handed down a hammer to smash the wall.
"Lady Luise. Have you secured the club members?"
A young nobleman with brilliant golden hair and violet eyes that symbolized the Imperial family. The Third Prince Ainter, whom Karl had gritted his teeth and avoided that morning, approached Luise.
"Ah, Your Highness the Prince!"
"I greet Your Highness."
When Luise and Erich hurriedly rose and paid their respects, Ainter laughed and stopped them.
"Please don't. Isn't this the Academy where everyone learns from the same position?"
Of course nominally Academy students were equal, but that was a dead-letter clause on par with the Academy's absolute neutrality. Academy life lasted three years; life after graduation lasted decades… Regardless, Ainter, who had casually glanced at the club establishment application, saw the list with only two names written and smiled.
"Fortunately, with me it will be exactly three people."
"Pardon…?"
At those words Luise's eyes widened for a moment, and Erich also looked at Ainter in surprise. Unfazed by their gazes, Ainter wrote his own name on the establishment application with his pen.
Only then did Luise break into a bright smile, and Ainter smiled with satisfaction at the sight. The Third Prince Ainter was already nothing more than the second sacrifice enchanted by the catnip named Luise.
And so the girl with charming pink hair, Luise, ran off smiling brightly while holding the club establishment application. Now that the most difficult hurdle—filling the members—was done, she only needed to find an advisor.
I'll find one quickly!
Thankfully there were many teachers who doted on her. Among those many people she would surely find someone willing to take on the advisor role. Luise believed that. Already she was lost in imagining herself enjoying the baking she loved so much and sharing the snacks she made with her friends.
