The Special Talent Admissions Examination (1)
"Principal! Principal! We've got a crisis!"
The Academy's chief administrator burst through the door of the principal's office in a panic.
"The Combat Chief Professor has— wait, huh?"
The desk was buried under a mountain of paperwork, but nobody was sitting behind it. That was strange. The principal ought to have been right there, clutching her head and sighing the way she always did. Where on earth had she gone? He had an urgent report to deliver.
"Has anyone seen the principal?"
The administrative staff all shook their heads. Had she gone out to observe a lecture? It was lunch hour, though. The chief administrator left the main building and sprinted for the lecture halls behind it.
"Has the principal been through here?"
He grabbed a passing professor, but no — she hadn't. What was going on? He searched the entire lecture building just as the professor had suggested, and Kirlin was nowhere to be found. Then… surely not the Combat Department's outdoor training grounds?
"Chief Administrator? What are you doing out here?"
He was standing there trying to figure out which of the Academy's sprawling practice fields to check first when Lina, a Combat Department professor, happened by and asked. She was carrying a bag of desserts from the café.
"I have an urgent report for the principal, but I can't find her anywhere."
"Oh, the principal? Try the café. She's there."
"The café? Thank you!"
The chief administrator hurried past Lina and made straight for the dessert café in the shopping district. It was lunchtime, so the front of the café was packed with students. Pushing through the crowd, he finally spotted Principal Kirlin.
She had an entire strawberry cream cake sitting on the table in front of her, and she was devouring it with gusto.
"Principal! What are you doing?!"
At the administrator's shout, Kirlin's long ears shot straight up like a rabbit's and her eyes went round.
"Wh-what?"
"This is no time to be sitting around eating cake!"
"Then what am I supposed to do during lunch…?"
"Chief Professor Dian brought in horses!"
"He did?!"
Kirlin dropped her fork, shot to her feet, and took off after the administrator.
They headed for the stables beside the Academy's combat riding grounds. A massive dimensional gate stood open in the wide paddock out front, and horses were filing out of it one after another.
"Easy now…! One at a time, this way, don't startle them…!"
Under the supervision of Combat Horsemanship Professor Anna, the Combat Department teaching assistants were leading the horses by their reins and stabling them in turn.
"Principal. Welcome."
Dian, who had been standing with his arms crossed watching the whole operation, spotted Kirlin and offered a greeting.
"What is all this…?"
"First time seeing a horse?"
Kirlin was in no mood for Dian's jokes. She could barely believe what she was looking at.
When Dian had first raised the need for combat horses, Kirlin had suggested retired warhorses from the army corps. Fully trained retired mounts, bought cheap — the students would learn faster, the budget would stretch further, and they'd skip the whole breaking-in process. Dian had shot that idea down. A fully equipped corps cavalry unit was one thing. Field operatives, on the other hand, had to be ready for every situation imaginable. Being a good rider mattered, but so did being able to acquire a mount in the first place. Wasn't that the whole point of teaching everything about horses, from stealing one to butchering one?
For that reason, Dian had decided to purchase only a handful of retired warhorses and fill the rest of the requirement with unbroken wild stock. Students who weren't used to riding would start with the ponies they already had and the retired warhorses, building from the basics. Those who'd reached a certain level would then learn to ride wild horses — a tiered approach. If you could ride a wild horse properly, Dian argued, you could secure a mount anywhere. And then he'd boldly declared that he'd bring back quality wild horses within a few days.
How he planned to bring in some thirty wild horses — and how he planned to break them — had raised more than a few questions…
"Where did you even get these…? How?"
"Wild horses from the Brun Plateau. I had Knightly subdue the lead stallion."
"Knightly…? An Academy student who hasn't even graduated yet broke a wild horse…?"
It was hard to believe — except the horses were filing in right in front of her, so she didn't have much choice.
"Is that actually true, Orendi?"
"Would I lie to you, Principal?"
Orendi practically shouted, buzzing with excitement.
"Knightly blinked onto the stallion's back, clung on with nothing but a single rope, and through some combination of maneuvers I can barely describe, ran the lead horse's stamina straight into the ground!"
"She did that by herself…?"
"Well, Professor Dian ran alongside her, cheering her on and catching her a few times when she was about to fall."
"Still. That's impressive, Cadet Knightly."
And with that, Kirlin let out a sigh so deep it felt like the ground might give way and she'd sink straight through into the earth's crust.
That man just threw a duke's daughter onto a wild horse without a second thought…? If she'd fallen, she'd have been looking at serious injuries at minimum!
The duke had already stormed the Academy over a wooden practice sword. If he found out his daughter had been put in a situation that could have killed her…
But Kirlin couldn't bring herself to confront Dian the way she had back at the Comprehensive Combat Training Ground. Dian's position at the Academy was already far too solid, built on everything he'd accomplished so far.
Which brought things to a brief accounting of the "minor" achievements Dian had racked up since "materializing" with an Imperial Palace letter of recommendation at his back.
1. Overhauled the Combat Department Kirlin had let stagnate while covering her own back, and rebuilt it around practical combat.
2. Turned the Duke of Toulouse — a great noble who'd been hostile to the Academy — into an ally the moment they met.
3. Brought in a church priest they'd thought they'd never get again — and not just any priest, an Oracle Priest — in the span of half a day.
4. Built the shopping district they'd been avoiding for fear of falling out of favor with the Imperial Palace, and did it with the Palace's enthusiastic backing.
5. Suddenly produced thirty docile wild horses without spending a single copper, from who-knows-where.
Projects that a typical academy would throw its entire institution behind, Dian had knocked out all by himself. So a mere principal like Kirlin was in no position to tell him what to do.
And looming larger than even that was what Kirlin felt for him. She had already been leaning on Dian in no small measure from the moment the Duke of Toulouse had left the Academy, laughing that booming laugh of his.
This man can keep me alive. He can save me from that nightmare of being dismissed and sent back to my clan's forest.
That feeling had only grown with everything that followed, until Kirlin was actively fleshing out a plan to hand the principal's seat to Dian entirely and step down to an ordinary Subject Professor herself. The Imperial Palace would be rid of Kirlin the eyesore and get a capable Dian as principal instead — good. Kirlin wouldn't have to return to her clan's forest, and she'd still be an Academy professor in name, so her father wouldn't be disappointed — also good. Dian would rise to a higher post — good as well.
Of course, she had no idea how her father would take her dropping from principal to professor. But if she framed it as the Palace having such a talented person on hand that a major personnel reshuffle had been unavoidable, wouldn't that be all right?
And on that front, she did have a certain safeguard in mind.
Namely, marri—
"Principal? What have you been eating?"
"What?"
"You've got something all over the corner of your mouth."
Dian reached out without warning and brushed the corner of Kirlin's lips. What came away on his finger was whipped cream from the cake she'd been devouring at the dessert café.
"What is that, cream?"
"The white really jumps out against that dark skin of yours."
Dian snickered and licked the cream off his finger.
"Mmm. That's good. This is from the shopping district dessert café, right? Their cake really is the best— Principal!"
A violent wave of dizziness hit Kirlin, and she swayed on her feet. Dian caught her just as she started to go down.
"What's wrong?"
"It's because of you…. Ah?!"
Even in her daze, she realized a split second too late that she'd said the wrong thing, and clamped her mouth shut so fast she nearly bit her tongue.
"Hmm. Principal."
Still holding her, Dian narrowed his eyes in suspicion and spoke in a distinctly meaningful tone.
"W-what…?!"
Kirlin's heart started hammering and her ears began to twitch, terrified he was about to seize on that slip and not let go. They were close enough that she could feel his breath. If he saw through her here, there would be no recovering from it — and there were other professors and teaching assistants standing right there!
"How much cake did you eat?"
"Huh?"
What came out of Dian's mouth was something else entirely.
"What are you talking about…?"
"The cake. How much of it did you eat by yourself. Don't tell me you finished the whole thing."
"Th-that's not— about half, maybe…"
"There it is."
Dian grinned and gave the bridge of her nose a light push with his finger.
"You demolished half a cake of that sickeningly sweet stuff all by yourself, so your blood sugar spiked and now you can barely keep your eyes open."
"Blood sugar…?"
"It's like sugar mixed into your blood. Eat too many sweets and the concentration shoots up for a while."
"I don't really get it, but I'll keep that in mind…"
"All right. You can stand up on your own now."
Only then did Kirlin realize she was still leaning at an angle in Dian's arms.
"Chief Professoooor!"
That was when Lina came into view, racing toward them with a bag stuffed full of desserts.
"I brought snacks! Eat up and then get back to it!"
True to her post as Infiltration Professor, Lina charged in at tremendous speed, latched onto Dian's arm — and Kirlin went bouncing off to the other side with a startled yelp.
"Look at this. There's sliced cake, and financiers, and madeleines, and coffee too…"
"Huh? Snacks!"
As Lina chattered away, holding the bag open for Dian, Professor Orendi came running over with his face lit up.
"Professor Anna! Hurry over! Professor Lina brought snacks!"
"Whoa, this looks good. Let's all take a break!"
With the dessert invasion turning the whole scene into a cheerful crowd of professors, Kirlin was left standing off to the side, staring blankly at Dian as he enjoyed himself.
Dian really is the one who belongs in the principal's seat. The sooner I step down, the better.
But… if she offered to step down to professor, would the Second Princess actually take that proposal at face value? After all the bad blood between them, wouldn't Her Highness seize the chance and simply throw her out?
I'm going to need a second safeguard.
Until now, she'd been so afraid of dismissal that she'd avoided making waves and kept her head down. But Dian was behind her now. She still held the principal's authority — it wasn't too late. She would start building a record of her own. Then, when the time came to step down to professor, the Second Princess wouldn't be able to discard her so coldly. She'd raise her own value until Her Highness at least considered her worth keeping on as faculty.
Dian had promised to protect her, and he'd kept that promise so far. Whatever she set in motion from here, he would almost certainly be a solid ally.
Now was the time. She couldn't let this chance slip away.
All right, Kirlin!!
Trust Dian — and go for it!!