Performance Evaluation (1): The Student Council President
The student council president was usually chosen through a popularity vote. The Imperial Academy, however, was different. It selected its president based purely on skill.
“What in the world...”
The elders were left utterly speechless as they watched Rose’s magic. She was the daughter of the Campbell family head and the master of the Magic Tower.
“Is this sufficient?”
“Ah, yes, my lady.”
“Then I’ll be taking my leave.”
With those words, she walked briskly toward the academy. On the surface she looked incredibly frail, yet in truth—
Whoosh!
—she could reduce an entire area to ash with a single spell. Staring at the forest now cleansed by her magic, the elders all came to the same conclusion: any man who married the young lady would be in for a very difficult life.
After fulfilling the elders’ request, Rose was busy working in the student council room when, without warning, memories she had never experienced before flashed through her mind.
“Ugh!”
A moment later.
“Haa… haa… What is this?”
Once the stream of memories pouring into her head finally ended, she rubbed her temples and looked around.
Ah. So that’s how it is.
The instant she accepted every last memory, she understood the current situation completely. Checking the date only deepened her certainty. She had regressed.
It was far too vivid to be a dream.
The memories were far too clear to dismiss as a mere dream. Still, no matter how vivid they were, there was no guarantee they were real. She could have been hit with mental magic.
Being several times more cautious than others, Rose decided to observe the situation first. If she had truly regressed, the future would unfold exactly as she remembered.
Returning to the present and piecing together everything that had happened so far, she reached a clear conclusion: she had regressed. Although some minor details of the future had changed, the major events remained identical. There was no doubt.
And—
I’m not the only one.
That was right. After accepting the memories, she had wondered whether the people from the Demon King’s Castle might have regressed as well. When she checked, sure enough, the other women were moving in completely different ways. It was as if they knew the future.
And the man I love, Professor Elric…
He must have regressed too. Otherwise there would be no reason for him to suddenly hold after-school classes.
I don’t know what Professor is thinking by creating something like that, but…
More importantly, she needed to speak with the other regressed women.
Hmm. I wonder if the princess has regressed as well?
Unlike the others, she had shown no movement whatsoever. If she had regressed, she should have been taking action immediately.
For now, I’ll summon everyone except the princess.
Having decided that, Rose wrote a letter and sent it to the other women through her summoned beast.
Roughly an hour later, three people had gathered naturally inside the student council room.
They were none other than—
“Professor Eve? Jane?”
“Sena and Dame Jane?”
“......”
Eve, Sena, and Jane. As the three stared at one another in bewilderment, a familiar voice sounded from inside the room.
“Please come in.”
Without hesitation, the three opened the door.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Rose sat in an elegant chair, offering them a sweet smile. She gestured invitingly.
“Make yourselves comfortable.”
The three promptly took seats on the sofa in front of the round table. The next instant, Jane raised her hand.
“Lady Rose. About the letter, I wanted to ask—”
“Yes. I have regressed.”
Rose cut straight to the heart of the matter. The three—including Jane—were rendered speechless. They had expected the conversation to end after reading the room; they never imagined she would be this direct.
“And all of you have regressed as well, correct? Let’s not waste time testing each other. In the previous round, those who formed an alliance—”
“...Sigh. Fine. If that’s how it is, I’ll admit it. Like Rose said, I have also regressed.”
The moment Rose finished, Eve nodded and acknowledged it. With the other two being so forthright, denying it now would only make them look foolish. In the end, Jane and Sena admitted it as well.
“Yes. The same goes for me.”
“Me as well.”
“Since we’ve all acknowledged our regression, let’s move quickly to the main topic.”
Just as she was about to explain, Jane cautiously raised her hand again.
“Lady Rose. May I ask one thing?”
When Rose nodded for her to continue, Jane glanced around and tilted her head.
“Everyone present is a woman who chased after the young master after he ran away. So why is the princess not here? I’m certain she must have regressed as well.”
“As expected, your senses are sharp. To be honest, I’m not certain whether she has regressed or not.”
“...Pardon?”
The unexpected answer made all three widen their eyes. Rose continued her explanation.
“Unlike the rest of you, the princess has shown no movements different from the previous round. She is acting exactly as she did before. Because I couldn’t be sure, I chose not to invite her.”
“Ah……”
“In any case, the reason I called you here is to discuss Professor Elric. As you all know, his recent behavior makes it seem like he has regressed… yet something still feels uncertain. What are your thoughts?”
“......”
The three fell silent. Sena was the first to break it.
“I believe he has regressed. His movements at the very end were identical to what I remember, and I personally witnessed him holding that green wooden staff.”
“Hmm. The information that he possesses the weapon called the Jukchang is quite valuable. What about the other two?”
Eve closed her eyes before answering.
“I’m not entirely certain either. It feels like he did something, but aside from the Jukchang there’s no solid proof.”
“I see. Lady Jane?”
“I’ll start by telling you what I saw.”
Jane then recounted the events at the auction house and everything concerning the Subjugation Necklace. After listening, Rose fell into brief thought.
Hmm. From what she described, it really is rather ambiguous.
A man presumed to be Elric had appeared at the auction, yet the professor had been at the mansion the entire time. She had wondered if he escaped during the terror incident, but the crucial piece of evidence—the Subjugation Necklace—had not been seen.
Having organized her thoughts, Rose turned to Eve.
“Then let’s do this. The performance evaluation is coming up soon, isn’t it, Professor Eve?”
“That’s right. It’s scheduled for a few weeks from now. What about it?”
“We’ll confirm it there.”
“Huh? How exactly would we confirm anything there?”
At the question, the corners of Rose’s mouth curved upward.
At the same moment, a sudden chill ran down my spine. I glanced around warily.
Jukchang-i’s voice echoed in my head, sounding puzzled.
“Master. Why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”
Ah. I just got goosebumps.
“It’s probably because the Class A students are cursing you like crazy right now.”
Yeah, that tracks.
It was hard to deny when the students were literally calling me the Demon King. As someone who had given the Demon King a proper education in the previous round, the feeling was strangely complicated.
“To be precise, it was just the two of us giving her that education! Ehem!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Anyway, I needed to come up with some kind of plan. While the Class A students—including Sai—were growing at a steep pace, there was no guarantee everything would go according to plan. Even if they defeated the Demon King, nothing said they would automatically return. The condition for returning ultimately depended on whether the readers liked it.
Hmm. Is there really no way to regress while keeping my current abilities?
I racked my brain until it felt like it would overheat, but unfortunately no good ideas came to mind.
I’ll have to think about this later.
There was no point dwelling on something I couldn’t solve right now. More pressing was the performance evaluation scheduled for a few weeks from now.
“Master. Do you really need to worry about that? From what I see, your class is going to completely dominate.”
“That might be true from a student standpoint. But that’s not the issue.”
If it were a normal performance evaluation, there would be no problem. That level of growth would be more than enough to satisfy the chairman. However, the performance evaluation involved—
“Won’t the Demon King’s army attempt another terror attack?”
The three nodded in understanding after hearing Rose’s words. She continued.
“If the professor has truly regressed, he will definitely move to stop it beforehand. All we need to do is confirm that single point.”
“That makes sense…”
“There was a method like this.”
“It seems like a good plan.”
The three nodded. Rose smiled sweetly.
“Then I’ll take it that we’re all in agreement and end the meeting here.”
“So, Master. What are you going to do? Move before the terror incident happens?”
“No. I’m just going to train the kids even harder so they can experience fighting demons ahead of time.”
Contrary to the yanderes’ expectations, Elric was simply thinking about rolling his students even more, just like always.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
A woman sat lost in thought inside the Demon King’s Castle.
It was none other than the one called the pinnacle of the demon race.
“Haa……”
The Demon King herself. There was nothing complicated behind her pensiveness. From a certain day onward, countless memories had flooded her mind. The final scene showed her being struck by a strange green stick from a certain man. Even remembering it now made her entire body tremble.
The reason she was so deep in thought was simple: she still wasn’t certain she had truly returned to the past.
According to the memories I saw, a few weeks from now I ordered a terror attack on the academy where the presumed hero would be…
Believing she had regressed, she had acted exactly as she remembered, yet the results had turned out completely different.
This time… it wouldn’t be a bad idea to send just one executive, unlike before.
The moment that thought finished was the instant the future began to diverge onto a completely different path.