episode_0148

Although I was invited to join the student council cabinet of Princess Seraphine, I didn’t feel particularly flustered by it.

I could tell from our conversation just now that she wasn’t genuinely interested in recruiting me for the student council.

‘She’s aiming for Edan.’

The current Edan Richard Blackwood was indeed a decent candidate for the student council cabinet.

Good-looking, from a good family, and personality-wise… well, at least on the surface, he seemed quite decent.

He hasn’t really formed or belonged to any faction so far, so there weren’t many noticeable followers around him. But once he entered some student council cabinet, it was only a matter of time.

Especially if he entered under someone like Seraphine, who had already built her own faction to some extent.

The current proposal was probably just a ploy to lure Edan, rather than trying to recruit me. It would be relatively less conspicuous to recruit me, as his exclusive maid, first before directly approaching Edan.

‘Wait a minute. Something seems off about this.’

“…Princess Seraphine.”

“Yes, Miss Lillis?”

“May I ask a question that might be considered impolite to the princess?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Could it be that you have mistaken the subject of the recruitment offer? If you are thinking of recruiting both Edan and me, it might be better to persuade Edan directly rather than me.”

“….”

Princess Seraphine fell silent for a moment in response to my question, with only a smile on her face.

To be honest, logically speaking, what I said made sense.

Who would recruit a nobleman’s followers starting from the servants below? It didn’t make sense.

Moreover, Edan, the target that Seraphine needed to persuade, was a passionate young man. He was so fervent that I had to calm his boiling desires almost once a week at the mansion.

With Seraphine’s looks, she could easily captivate a guy like him, so I couldn’t understand why she would go through the trouble of making this recruitment offer to me.

“I haven’t mistaken the subject of the offer, Miss Lillis.”

“Yes?”

“I am offering the recruitment to you, Miss Lillis. Of course, if we can recruit Edan as well, that would be great. But even if that part is not possible, you are the one I want to recruit.”

“….Yes?”

“And if we can recruit only you, it will be much easier to bring Edan as well.”

“….?????”

“So, Miss Lillis, you just need to voice your opinion.”

The more we talked, the more strange questions arose, and it seemed unlikely that a different answer would come out even if I pressed further.

For now, it seemed reasonable to assume that Seraphine was using me to lure Edan while hiding her true intentions.

Nobles often hide their true feelings and say things that are different from their original intentions, especially if they are from the royal family.

But a student council cabinet…

‘Just looking at the offer, it’s not a bad one.’

If Seraphine’s selection for the student council was based on her judgment, then each member would be a decent individual.

There was a good chance that some of the heroines from the Luminoir Academy had already been recruited. And being a heroine-level figure at the Luminoir Academy meant that they were capable of contributing at least more than one person’s worth.

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the final evaluation of the second semester was a monster subjugation hunt in the Black Forest. So, it was entirely possible to build rapport with other student council members and participate in the final hunt together.

‘But I haven’t even had a proper contact with Riji yet, and if I get involved in student council duties, this semester will really be tight on time….’

“Lily’s concerns seem to be deepening, so for now, shall we reveal to just one person who is familiar with Lily?”

“Yes?”

“Miss Lige Lin Auguste. She has also decided to participate in the student council selections that I will be organizing this time.”

“Miss Auguste?”

“…It’s still conditional, though.”

If Lige has already made up her mind to join the Seraphim faction, there doesn’t seem to be a need to worry about this side of things.

Thanks to that, I had somewhat gathered my thoughts and replied, indicating that I would give Seraphim some leeway.

Of course, entering the cabinet itself would be more important to Ethan’s will than to me.

“For now, I will consult with Lord Ethan. This is a matter that I cannot decide on my own without Lord Ethan’s permission.”

“Yes, of course.”

There was a meaningful smile hanging on the corner of her lips.

***

After finishing the day’s schedule with Ethan and returning to the dormitory, I sat at my desk and mentally organized the tasks I needed to do now.

About the various events that suddenly started at the beginning of this semester.

“Build a relationship with Agnes, release the pent-up emotions, and contract a lower spirit before the end of this semester.”

“Respond to the formation of the Seraphim Princess’s student council cabinet. (Consultation with Ethan required)”

“Reconcile with Lige and ask for potion manufacturing for the final hunting festival. (Contact possible in the Seraphim student council)”

These were the tasks that needed to be dealt with immediately. Among them, in the case of Lige, she would only have the opportunity to contact me if things went well for Seraphim.

Building relationships with three women in one semester. What kind of otome game is this… No, come to think of it, it is an otome game.

It was inevitable. ‘Luminor Academy’ is such a diverse game that it is ‘impossible’ to digest all the heroines’ romance events in just one playthrough.

However, even if there is no protagonist, the incidents that occurred to the existing heroines will not disappear, so the original stories will continue to flow.

For some reason, it was hard to shake off the feeling that I kept getting involved in that position where the protagonist-like me kept getting entangled with the women.

‘The protagonist must be busy with Cerista and Serena this semester.’

The event to help the fake saint Cerista regain her trust and the annoying errands entwined with the only elf in the academy, Serena, were concentrated in the second semester.

Judging by the actions of the guy in the first semester, he seemed to have a sense of responsibility, so this semester, he would definitely move towards capturing the two of them.

To form a demon subjugation squad in earnest, it was from the third year onwards. Until then, it was the orthodox play to firmly establish the pawns in one’s hands.

At first, I thought he was just a useless guy with the name Getmujoshegi, but after watching his actions for a semester, I somewhat changed my mind.

I felt like I should meet him once and have a proper conversation between reincarnated individuals.

Anyway, the events that I originally thought he wouldn’t get involved in were situations that only involved me, so there was no problem. Perhaps Seraphim had already made an offer to him before making an offer to me.

It wouldn’t be a big deal to pick up the event that Getmujoshegi had already given up on. Anyway, it wasn’t really a hindrance to him.

“Lily, the bathroom is empty.”

“Lord Ethan, I have something to discuss for a moment.”

“…What is it?”

After finishing his morning routine in the bathroom, Edan and I discussed the proposal that Seraphine had presented today.

After hearing the entire contents, Edan was the first to turn the question back to me.

“What do you want to do, Lillis?”

“What?”

“…I’m just asking for reference. I’m not necessarily going to follow Lillis’s opinion.”

Ah, it was just for reference.

Well, Edan must have his own thoughts, so he wouldn’t just blindly follow what I say.

Since my words wouldn’t have a significant impact on Edan’s decision, I conveyed my thoughts to him without any hesitation.

“Well, I think it’s not a bad proposal.”

“Is that so?”

“Princess Seraphine has already formed her own unique group within the academy using her position and virtue. If there are no major issues, this support base will be maintained until the princess graduates from the academy.”

“Yeah, I agree with that.”

“In that case, I think it’s best to join Princess Seraphine’s faction now, with fewer followers, rather than waiting. As the curriculum from the third year onwards is practically focused on practical training without department boundaries, there is much more potential for development within her faction compared to forming connections with other factions within the same department.”

“Hmm….”

Edan made a displeased expression.

Well, as a member of the Blackwood family, he probably wouldn’t be inclined to join someone else’s faction so easily.

Having somewhat understood Edan’s feelings, I tried to pique his interest with another suggestion.

“Alternatively, Edan, you could start building your own faction from now on… but honestly, I think it would be difficult to surpass Princess Seraphine, who is already gaining momentum.”

“That’s true. It might be a bit late to start now.”

If the goal was simply to graduate from the academy, there was no need to form or join factions. Most commoner students couldn’t even fit in with the noble factions in the first place.

However, as a member of the Blackwood family, Edan would find it difficult to erase his presence and focus solely on graduating.

Unless he had the power to silence everyone like Harold, some level of faction was necessary as a noble.

Unlike commoner students who could lead a comfortable life with just an academy diploma, nobles had to maintain relationships with the factions even after graduation.

In that sense, the most efficient way for Edan, a member of the Blackwood family, to build connections was to join a large faction that was friendly to him, and one of them was Seraphine’s faction.

If there was another faction that could potentially grow into a large faction in the future and currently showed a friendly attitude towards Edan…

“If you don’t like Princess Seraphine’s faction, there is also a way to build a relationship with Knight Gethmoges. Currently, Knight Gethmoges is showing a favorable attitude towards the owner, so if you make a good impression on him early on, he might…”

“I’d rather go with the princess.”

“What?”

“Tell the princess that I have positively accepted it, Lillis. I don’t want to get too close to that lecher… I mean, the knight.”

“Understood, Edan.”

What? Was there some fight between the knight and me that I didn’t know about?

Seeing Edan’s expression harden at the mention of the knight’s name made me a little uneasy, but ultimately, the story was that Edan had chosen Seraphine.

It was a good story for me, as there were still problems to be solved on Seraphine’s side.