Nobility

Around the time when the sun had fully revealed itself and the dawn air had completely disappeared. In the principal’s office of the academy, Mira was clutching her aching head.

Mira’s face was so furrowed that her usual relaxed and playful expression was nowhere to be seen.

Her dark circles were so deep they seemed to reach her cheeks, and her once supple skin had become dry and rough from lack of proper sunlight and moisture.

And the reason for this was none other than the unceasing letters from the kingdom’s nobles that had been arriving for Mira over the past 5 days.

Naturally, the recipient was Mira, but the content of all the letters was asking to invite Aria and Meiyel, who had resolved the Sky Island incident, to their families.

Mira’s inner thoughts upon receiving such letters were, needless to say, obvious.

…If it’s a letter for those two, shouldn’t they send it to the temple where they’re staying, rather than to me?

Mira muttered inwardly, chewing on her irritation, but she knew the reason herself. They didn’t want to risk sending a letter to the temple and annoying the Pope, which could become troublesome.

Perhaps it might not end with just being annoying, but could even endanger their positions, so they were sending so many letters to her, who was the most approachable and could directly convey messages to the two.

Although she was writing polite refusal letters to fulfill Aria’s wish to pass over the matter quietly as much as possible, each time she did so, the returning letters doubled, so Mira was still unable to escape this letter hell.

If there was anything fortunate, it might be that these letters would stop once the two go to the kingdom due to His Majesty the King’s order that came down just yesterday.

Although she felt sorry for not being able to prevent it in the end, for Mira, the king’s summons was like a final hope, so she began to organize the remaining letters, using that hope as a guiding light.

“This one is from Baron Lupen… and this one from Count Heilak…”

She throws the letters, piled up like mountains in a literal sense, not metaphorically, into the fireplace one by one.

As mentioned just now, since these letters would stop anyway tomorrow, it would be enough to reply only to the letters from viscounts and above.

Therefore, Mira was placing only the letters from some viscounts and dukes neatly on her desk and throwing all the rest into the fireplace, when suddenly a question arose in her mind, causing her to stop organizing and mutter to herself.

“Miss Aria… how on earth did she obtain such strength? No, the situation with the Demon King appearing is strange to begin with, but…”

The incident witnessed on the Sky Island five days ago. Mira still remembered it clearly.

The Demon King who suddenly appeared on the Sky Island. And Aria, who leaped to an impossibly high altitude following that Demon King.

Although she remembered it clearly, it was all events so detached from reality that everything felt like a dream.

First of all, leaving aside the fact that she jumped to that height normally, the nonchalant words she said after actually clashing with the Demon King were that she ‘failed the subjugation’. Doesn’t it sound like she intended to kill the Demon King from the beginning?

“Honestly… if it’s Miss Aria, I feel like she might have really meant it…”

It’s scary because now that I think about it, it seems like it could be true.

But leaving that aside, it didn’t make sense that she ended up with only that level of injuries after failing to subjugate the Demon King.

Of course, they must have escaped using the transfer magic that Meiyel had prepared in advance, but still, they must have fought for at least 3 minutes.

According to legends, the Demon King was a monster that even if the Pope and the Knight Commander, the strongest in the human race, fought together, victory could never be guaranteed… perhaps the possibility of defeat was even higher.

Yet, fighting such an opponent alone, she only received some deep wounds without a single life-threatening injury.

Moreover, when she saw her walking around normally after receiving the Pope’s healing without any after-effects, even Mira couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.

“Is she really the same kind of human…?”

The predominant thought is that she’s really not the same kind of human. I know this thought is disrespectful, but who wouldn’t think so after seeing such strength?

“Hmm.”

…Although it seems Arin and her group were so infatuated that they didn’t have such thoughts.

Anyway, although Mira had many curiosities, she soon flicked her finger towards the fireplace filled with piled-up letters.

Snap──!

As she flicked her finger, a flame burst forth, quickly blackening and curling the luxurious letter papers before turning them to ash.

And as she stared blankly at this sight, Mira leaned deeply into her chair and murmured.

“I shouldn’t forcibly dig into what they want to keep hidden…”

As soon as the Sky Island incident ended, Aria had asked her to please help it pass over quietly.

Moreover, seeing how she had distanced herself using Meiyel’s transfer magic, although she didn’t say it in words, it seemed she was reluctant to have Mira dig too deeply.

Since Mira wasn’t thick-skinned enough to push forward brazenly after seeing such an attitude, she eventually gave up and began throwing the remaining letters back into the fireplace.

“Ah, but I should ask separately about the Demon King matter later.”

Although she had hidden it because she didn’t want to spread it as a big issue to the King and hadn’t received Aria’s permission, the matter related to the Demon King was truly a major issue.

Mira began to pick up the pace on the tasks that were coming to an end, vowing to properly ask about it later if time allowed, by setting up a meeting.

---

Once the small commotion about the future that had started early in the morning was settled, other matters proceeded smoothly.

The letter with the king’s summons was well crumpled and stored in my pocket, Mu showered me with praise saying it was bold, and Morgan and Isolde understood and agreed to their situation of becoming assistants.

Well, it’s not like they could do anything even if they refused, but I should find significance in the fact that everything was resolved peacefully without violence.

And after spending the early morning hours efficiently like that, I was now.

In the middle of the morning assembly in Class 1-A.

“It’s been a while, everyone. It must have been confusing, but you’ve overcome it well and come to the academy. I commend you.”

This was the words I uttered as the start of the assembly after opening the classroom door at 9 o’clock sharp.

A word of praise that I don’t easily utter.

However, was this sincere word meaningful? After a moment of silence, the students soon began to chatter noisily, turning the quiet classroom into a bustling one.

“I missed you too! Teacher!”

“What’s with Aria-teacher giving praise all of a sudden…?”

“Record… This is a record!”

When one starts talking, two start talking, and when two talk, the whole class starts talking. I don’t give praise often, but I’m not that stingy with it, is this something to make such a fuss about?

For a moment, I froze at the sudden commotion and looked at the children in the class, but realizing that the current uproar was noisier than expected, I slammed the teacher’s desk hard to calm down the classroom that had instantly turned into chaos.

“Everyone be quiet!!!”

BANG───!!!

Then the students immediately closed their mouths and quietly focused their attention on me.

As expected, this action I’ve been doing every morning assembly until now wasn’t forgotten just because five days had passed.

As it was the first morning assembly in five days, there was a mountain of things to say, so I cleared my throat once under the focused attention and slowly put into words the contents I had organized in my head.

“First of all, as you all know, the Sky Island incident has been well concluded. However, the fact that our entire academy was forcibly transferred to the Sky Island is known only to a very few, so try not to disclose it if possible.”

At my words, the students murmured with serious expressions, not bustling like before.

It seemed they had just realized that only a very few people knew about this incident.

But even though they look serious now, it was clear that sooner or later, someone from our class, or another class, or someone completely different from the academy would spread rumors, so there was no need to pay particular attention to this story.

That’s why I prefixed it with “if possible”.

I just hoped that even if this fact spreads, those above would be able to deal with it quickly and calm it down.

“Then next───.”

And after informing them about the most important but unimportant matter of preventing secret disclosure, I roughly summarized and told them about the matters Mira had passed down.

Except for preventing secret disclosure, the rest were all insignificant news such as minor changes in the academy over the past five days, strengthening of defense facilities, withdrawal of some weak-hearted students, and so on, so there was no problem in roughly informing them.

Rather, the most important thing for our class would be this last announcement that came because of me.

“──So these students have withdrawn, but you all have strong wills, so there’s no need to worry.”

“””…”””

The students were now focusing only on my words with their mouths shut, having fallen silent at some point while I was giving the announcements.

I had no such intention, but it seemed that this Aria’s appearance, filtering, and usual conduct had somehow solidified my image among the students as a scary professor.

Therefore, after delivering the announcements for about 5 minutes in such a not-too-heavy silence,

only after I had told all the announcements received from Mira did I lightly tap the blackboard, finally recalling the person who would probably be standing behind that door.

“Now, everyone pay attention! I have one more thing to tell you. This is important for you too, so listen carefully.”

“Something important for us…?”

“What could it be?”

“Hmm… I wonder…?”

The students burst out with questions at my words.

As everyone made faces showing they couldn’t guess at all, I walked towards the front door of the classroom with unhesitating steps.

Rather than explaining this with my mouth, it would be much faster and more certain to show them directly.

“Let me introduce. Starting today, the assistant for Meiyel’s magic class and also the vice homeroom teacher for our Class 1-A…”

Therefore, as I spoke to the students, I flung open the door, and there.

“My name is Isolde.”

“Nice to meet you all. I look forward to working with you for a long time.”

Isolde, with her usual cold impression and purple hair fluttering, entered the classroom, raising her blue eyes.

And as a bonus, the air in the classroom froze solid at her icy greeting.