Date? (1)

Two weeks had passed since the day I officially contracted with Sei, the mid-level wind spirit.

As this was an academy world set in a game, various things did happen over the past two weeks, but for Ethan and me, it felt like quite ordinary days were passing by.

If there was anything special among them, it was that my level increased by one to 12 while taking the Practical Monster Hunting class over the past two weeks.

Since I paired up with Ethan and caught five or six monsters a day, it was, in a way, a natural outcome.

Of course, compared to intentionally focusing on leveling up, it was a persistently slow growth, but still, the fact that I was growing at all was important in its own way.

The scene when Ethan and I took the Practical Monster Hunting class was usually like this.

“Lillith, can you buy time against the Goblin at 3 o’clock?!”

“I can manage! So, Ethan, please focus on the Orc in front of you!”

“Okay, I’m counting on you!”

Basically, while Ethan dealt with strong enemies on the front line and focused on that battle, I would defend the unavoidable blind spots.

Alternatively, while Ethan handled monsters that got close, I would keep the fewer ranged monsters in check with Dagger Throw or Mana Arrow. This was the usual pair hunting method for Ethan and me.

Besides that, I also occasionally used Arcane Shield or Mana Chains, assisting Ethan’s hunting itself.

Fighting with a reliable tank and damage dealer in front was reassuring in many ways. Because in 『Luminor Academy』, I, the protagonist, had almost exclusively taken on the tank role.

It was Ethan’s idea to omit honorifics during combat. He said that if I kept adding “Young Master, Young Master” in urgent situations, there was a possibility that he wouldn’t catch the important details.

If I, a maid, had dared to make such a brazen suggestion first, it wouldn’t have been strange to be immediately called out for insubordination, so I had kept my mouth shut, but fortunately, Ethan didn’t seem to be completely oblivious either.

As for me, I had already harbored such thoughts, so I naturally agreed.

Anyway, putting aside the fact that he was simply the Young Master and a noble I served, Ethan was quite a useful partner in practical hunting.

If possible, until graduation from the Academy, I couldn’t help but naturally feel like I wanted to work with him.

‘If I just remain Ethan’s exclusive maid, I’ll still be able to act in a position similar to a partner while attending the Academy.’

It felt like just yesterday I saw that brat whining for food because he was hungry at the restaurant, but now, he had become a reliable vanguard whom I could trust my back to without any worry.

Every time I took the practical hunting class, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of renewed emotion.

And if there was anything else special, perhaps it was getting a little closer to Agnes.

Well, given her desperate situation, getting closer to me was probably the best solution, so it was practically an unavoidable choice.

Even to win in the complex hierarchy struggle of the Elizabeth Family, a spirit was not an option but a necessity for Agnes.

It wasn’t simply a matter of her magic becoming stronger or weaker only if she had a spirit.

The successor to the Elizabeth Family, who had carried on the lineage, always had a family tradition that they must be superior to others in all aspects, and that wasn’t limited to magic.

Knowledge of magic was the absolute basic, and social etiquette, spirit affinity, and other factors were also included in the criteria for evaluating a successor.

No matter how strong their magic was or how much knowledge they had about it, if their spirit affinity was terribly low, they would naturally be pushed out of the succession line.

Especially if Agnes, who was taking spiritology classes to try and contract even a Low Spirit, couldn’t contract a spirit even after a semester, no matter how promising she was, her standing within the family would become quite precarious.

Professor Erin’s class only focused on ‘getting close’ to spirits, and wasn’t very suitable for ‘contracting’ them, so I was almost the only one who could help her in her situation.

That’s why recently, I deliberately stayed for an hour after class to help Agnes prepare for a spirit contract.

“Basically, the problem with Ms. Blaze is that her obsession with spirits is too strong. She approaches them too aggressively.”

“…Why is that? If I don’t approach them actively, there’s no way spirits will approach me first.”

“Normally, that would be true, of course. But Ms. Blaze’s Mana is a bit special, isn’t it? It’s the kind of Mana that spirits find difficult to approach readily.”

“…I’ve been wondering about this. Is my Mana really that bad? Still, I have a lot of Mana, so there might be some who like it, right?”

‘No, there isn’t. You, you smell. A strange smell.’

‘N-no! One of the reasons we contract with humans in the first place is because we want to eat delicious Mana that doesn’t exist in nature! Of course, your Mana also tastes like something that wouldn’t exist in nature, but… there are hardly any spirits who would want to gorge themselves on tasteless, smelly Mana! Well, there might be a peculiar one who actually finds your Mana delicious, but!’

“……”

The moment Agnes heard Sei and Sally’s scathing evaluations, her face froze in shock.

It’s not like I had any special affection for this girl, but even so, their evaluations were far too harsh.

“Hold on, Sei, Sally! Don’t be so blunt! There’s a way to say things more indirectly, you know!”

‘Strange, smell. How do you, say it indirectly? I don’t know that.’

‘Then Lillith, you try saying it indirectly! I just honestly said I don’t want to eat tasteless, strange-smelling Mana!’

“Ta-tasteless, strange-smelling Mana….”

“…Ms. Blaze. Your Mana isn’t inherently wrong. It’s just that spirits find it a bit unfamiliar, making it hard for them to approach readily. No matter how normal a steak looks, it’s human instinct to avoid it if it smells like rotten eggs, isn’t it? And if clear soup smells like urine, you’d naturally have no choice but to suspect the chef. What spirits feel from Ms. Agnes’s Mana is exactly something similar to this…”

“…You’re the worst.”

“……Huh?”

Anyway, recently, I spent time focusing on making Agnes understand the nature of her Mana.

The most fundamental solution was, of course, to increase Agnes’s charm stat and raise her spirit affinity, but that wasn’t something that could be done in the short term.

Agnes’s spirit contract operation was planned to proceed with a method closer to a trick.

‘If it’s a young spirit that can’t even perceive the taste of Mana itself, I should be able to get one to attach to her.’

If it’s a spirit contracted with a human, it’s entirely possible to raise it into a strong spirit depending on the human’s capabilities.

An event that would give Agnes a spirit would soon find its way to the Academy on its own, so until then, I had to somehow make Agnes willing to contract with a Low Spirit.

This doesn’t mean I was holding a grudge against Agnes, who I found annoying at our first meeting, and deliberately saying things that would upset her to her face.

After seriously discussing spiritology with Agnes for two weeks like that, I also roughly got used to how to handle her.

Even while seeking my help regarding spirit contracts, Agnes often looked at me with eyes that showed her displeasure.

Well, even if she looked at me with displeased eyes, she wouldn’t be able to do anything to me until the next evaluation match.

“Please cast your vote for the Princess for this year’s Student Council President!”

“We ask for your strong support for Princess Seraphine of the Moonlight Shadow!”

And amidst all that, Seraphine’s Student Council President election campaign was steadily progressing.

If something unexpected had happened, I would have participated to help Seraphine’s campaign, but since the Student Council President election was proceeding exactly as in the original story, I didn’t intervene.

In the first place, even if I had gotten involved and participated in the campaign, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

Seraphine’s election as Student Council President was already almost certain, and the other candidates were practically just participating for the sake of it, not actively campaigning as if they expected to become Student Council President.

Well, although it was said that the Imperial family’s power barely reached inside the Island of Knowledge, outside the Academy, they were still individuals who had to meet as Imperial family members and subjects.

Risking their neck for the position of Academy Student Council President, where the chances of winning were slim and uncertain, and unnecessarily falling out of favor with the Imperial family, would not be something they themselves desired.

In other words, a few days later, when Seraphine’s Student Council began its activities, Ethan and I would also officially become busy.

If we did Student Council work on weekdays, we would naturally have no choice but to catch up on assignments on the weekends, so this weekend was effectively the last leisurely week Ethan and I could spend.

…For some reason, on that last weekend, I had left the Academy with Ethan since morning and was strolling through the streets of the Island of Knowledge.

And what’s more, without Isabel, who was always by our side on such occasions, just the two of us.

“Lillith, is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

“…No, you don’t need to ask for my opinion, so I will follow wherever Young Master Ethan leads….”

“We agreed not to use ‘Young Master’ today, Lillith.”

“…Th-that’s right. ……E-Ethan.”

When I somehow managed to call Ethan’s name with difficulty, my lips reluctant to part, Ethan nodded with a satisfied expression.

Feeling a bit puzzled by his inexplicable reaction, I quietly followed Ethan for now.

Seriously, how did it come to this….