Nobility(2)

What’s this? Are we playing freeze tag or something?

The classroom was filled with an air so cold it seemed like it would freeze instantly if hot water was poured.

I frowned at Isolde’s attitude, the culprit who had turned the students in front of me into ice in an instant, while looking at them.

“Did I do something wrong…?”

And Isolde, receiving my frown, hesitated with an aggrieved expression as if she didn’t understand the reason, and asked me in a whisper.

She looked quite scared even though I had only frowned.

However, fortunately, this appearance of Isolde seemed to have a thawing effect, as the frozen students began to move one by one, and seeing this sight, I spoke in a small voice that only Isolde could hear.

“Speak a little more gently. If you talk like you were a demon executive, the students will freeze like just now.”

“…I understand. I’ll try.”

As a former demon executive, Isolde’s way of speaking like a superior was ingrained in her, and it would feel scary to students who had only dipped their toes into a little bit of impurity.

Therefore, I ordered Isolde to speak more gently, and Isolde nodded slightly and took a step back.

And when I turned back to the students, the cold atmosphere had melted, and it was quite a chaotic scene.

Students whispering and chattering among themselves. Should I be thankful that at least no curses could be heard in those whispers?

I looked around at the students for a moment, then cleared my throat with a fake cough and raised my voice.

“Ahem! For now, as this is the vice homeroom teacher you’ll be spending quite a long time with, I hope you won’t be too scared and will be able to at least speak to her. Despite appearances, she’s a kind person, so there won’t be any problems. I guarantee it.”

“Kind…?”

If she’s not kind, I’ll make her so by order, so if possible, I hope the students won’t be scared.

Isolde, who was standing behind me, chewed on the word “kind” which was extremely unsuitable for her, but soon met my fierce glare and had no choice but to close her mouth tightly, her lips quivering.

She was sending me a look that said “tyrant”, but why should I care?

As Isolde nodded, unable to resist my gaze and not denying it, the students finally showed signs of considerable relief.

And as the end time of the morning assembly had sneakily approached, I grabbed Isolde’s arm and opened the classroom door to step out.

“By the way, Isolde will mostly be in my professor’s office on the third floor, so if you have anything, tell her.”

Leaving a final word to the students to make use of Isolde, I moved my feet faster than anyone else.

---

Today’s first class was magic time.

However, since there was a regular class after the assembly ended, there was a leisurely 50 minutes of free time.

Most professors spend this time going out to buy snacks or chatting while smoking, but I personally preferred to stay holed up in the professor’s office.

Therefore, after leaving the classroom, I immediately went up the stairs with Isolde towards Aria’s personal professor’s office on the third floor.

Click──

As I opened the door of the professor’s office and entered, the stuffy but pleasant scent of old books and dust that hadn’t been properly cleaned yet entered my nostrils.

And as soon as we entered the professor’s office, Morgan, who was sitting on the desk, greeted Isolde with a grin.

“Finally here? Miss Isolde, who’s smarter than me.”

“Shut up, Morgan.”

Seeing her tease like this without getting tired, it seemed she vividly remembered how I had coaxed Isolde by saying ‘You, who are smarter than Morgan, take on the role of vice homeroom teacher’.

And Isolde had accepted it at that moment without proper judgment.

Therefore, Isolde, who took an attitude of ignoring Morgan by rebuking her like this, floated not her original staff full of demonic energy, but the ordinary staff I had temporarily given her, and lay down on it.

Morgan, seeming more excited by Isolde ignoring her like this, persistently stuck to her and couldn’t erase her grinning smile.

As I was watching Morgan and Isolde’s skit, which was quite entertaining just to look at, Mu, in Kama’s form, quietly approached my side.

“Are you here, Mother? The next class was magic class, right?”

“Yes, I’m planning to go out right after 50 minutes.”

Mu asked me in an even more polite tone than usual, perhaps because of Kama’s appearance.

I answered lightly and was about to watch the two’s skit again, but soon let out a short sigh and turned my eyes away from their skit to call up the avatar window.

It was because I judged it better to resolve everything now that the topic had come up, rather than doing it later and making it troublesome.

“Avatar.”

The translucent window that had become as familiar as my own hands and feet. I touched Meiyel’s image there and once again muttered at the prompt that appeared.

[Do you want to select Magician – Meiyel?]

“Select.”

No sooner had I finished answering than my body began to shine.

Mu retreated towards the bookshelf at my appearance shining as if a small light had been turned on, and Morgan and Isolde, who had been filming their skit, turned their heads to look at me without anyone going first.

However, I slowly felt my body changing without paying attention to any of those gazes.

With a feeling of my entire body shrinking, when I opened my eyes, I could see that my viewpoint had lowered. A large conical hat that I always wore was on my head, and below it, wavy dark blue hair and a robe were hanging long.

“Mmm… It’s been a while since I’ve been in this body…”

Since it was a body that Mu usually always used, it had been almost a week since I had transformed into Meiyel’s body.

And as I was hopping in place a few times to adapt to Meiyel’s body that I was changing into after a while, Morgan and Isolde, who had been watching my transformation in real-time, opened their mouths.

“Indeed, no matter how many times I see it, that transformation is amazing?”

“It’s almost impossible even with magic… If possible, I’d like to research it.”

Although they must have seen it several times by now, they always gave the same impressions about my transformation with fresh eyes.

Even though it was common sense that was impossible to understand, it seemed their curious minds and sense of wonder were greater.

As the person involved, it was an emotion I couldn’t particularly understand, but well, since that seemed to be how they felt, I nodded lightly and answered.

“You can’t do it anyway, but research is not allowed… To begin with, you’re only being shown this because you made a contract… Don’t have unnecessary thoughts.”

As I spoke while narrowing my eyes slightly, both of them nodded reflexively.

Especially Isolde, who had been defeated by Mu in this Meiyel form, nodded more intensely as if she had PTSD.

Satisfied with their actions that were perfectly angled, I let out a content sound and trudged over to throw my body into the chair at the desk.

Plop──

Although my head barely reached over the desk because my body was small, it wasn’t a problem since it didn’t hinder resting. To begin with, there wasn’t anything particularly to do right now anyway.

“……”

And as soon as I thought about work, suddenly a question flashed through my mind as I lay my body on the chair.

It wasn’t a big problem, but it was the most problematic issue given the current situation.

‘There are 50 minutes left, what should I do from now on?’

Come to think of it, it was always like this.

After the morning assembly ended, I would take a languid rest and then repeat classes alternating with Mu.

Usually, it was a relaxed and enjoyable break time, but now that the story had officially begun, for some reason this break felt like a huge waste of time.

Although the plans were all laid out, should I say it felt a bit wasteful to just spend even a little bit of spare time on rest?

No, I knew myself that it was an unnecessary thought, but that didn’t make this feeling of waste I was experiencing now disappear.

Therefore, I looked around wondering if there might be something else left to do, but the last thing that needed to be done had long been resolved this morning.

And realizing this, the feeling of exhaustion in my body seemed to worsen.

“…Mother, is there something wrong?”

Perhaps noticing my expression, Mu, who had been standing modestly, approached me with a worried face and asked, but I answered by waving my hand instead.

I never thought I’d live to see the day when I’d worry about having no work to do, it’s more shocking than I expected.

However, fortunately, our goddess Iriel didn’t seem to intend to let me fall into this listlessness.

“What nonsense! Didn’t I tell you to bring them immediately!!!”

“I’m sorry, but His Majesty the King’s command to summon them to the palace tomorrow has already come down…”

“Then they should come today before going to His Majesty!!! This is why stupid ones are…”

A commotion heard from outside the open window.

At that commotion coming from the direction of the school gate, we in the professor’s office all straightened up at the same time.

“Noisy… What’s all this commotion…?”

“It seems a noble has come, from what I can hear…”

“A noble, you say? Well… I guess only nobles would come so boldly like this.”

“Whether demons or humans, those with status are equally a nuisance.”

As I grumbled with a slightly expectant face, Mu answered me, roughly guessing the situation just from the sound. And at Mu’s words, Morgan and Isolde each added a comment as they approached the window.

The situation outside became clearly visible as we stuck to the window.

There, we could see a thin man shouting at the top of his lungs, accompanied by what looked like ten knights behind him, and in front of him, Mira bowing her head.

But this alone wasn’t enough to fully grasp the situation yet.

Of course, that’s natural since all we heard was the commotion when they just started raising their voices. However, in the next moment, I could perfectly understand the situation from the shout of the man who looked like a noble.

“Is the name of Count a joke to you?! I said bring that woman Aria and that woman Meiyel here right now!!!”

“Hooh…”

“How dare they speak so carelessly about Mother…!”

It seemed an interesting event beyond my expectations had occurred.