Was she lured by food?
The moment I saw Charlotte place her hand on Mia’s shoulder, I thought that.
“Is it really because of food?”
Alice seemed to have the same thought as me.
“There’s no way it could be that.”
Even though I was thinking the same thing as Alice, I still felt the need to say it out loud. Half of me meant it. Initially, I did wonder if it was because of food, but I couldn’t believe that Mia would follow Charlotte simply because of that.
Mia has a very introverted personality.
I was the same, but whenever something needed my action, I tended to move first. If I didn’t act, situations wouldn’t resolve themselves.
But Mia wouldn’t move until there was some external stimulus.
That characteristic had improved a lot by now, but I seriously doubted she’d come up with the idea of becoming the student council vice president on her own.
It was definitely Charlotte who initiated the conversation.
“Why did Charlotte make such a proposal to Mia, and why did Mia accept it?”
That was indeed a question.
The relationship between Charlotte and Mia, as individuals, wasn’t bad at all. In fact, you could say it was good. I had hardly ever seen the two of them laughing together, but Charlotte always approached Mia with a gentle attitude, and Mia always reacted softly… well, it was more like she responded timidly.
But when you looked at it from a family-to-family perspective, the story changes.
Charlotte is the eldest daughter of the Velbur royal family. Mia is the eldest daughter of the Crowfield Count family.
Both would naturally become the heads of their respective families if left alone without any incidents over time.
Crowfield was originally land belonging to Velbur. It was known for being fertile, but now most of that fertile land is used for growing poppies instead of wheat. Some among the Velbur nobility viewed this fact with great displeasure. While it’s acknowledged that morphine is an essential drug in modern society, it can’t be denied that the image of opiate-related substances is rather bad.
It makes sense that it wouldn’t have a good image, especially since they had taken the land from Velbur due to war.
“……”
So, like Alice, I found it difficult to understand Mia’s decision.
Was it to build a bridge for the future?
To reiterate, Mia’s personality is one that shies away from power. If she could, she would rather stay locked up in a room or at home, spending her time reading her favorite books.
So Mia, becoming the student council vice president?
“I guess there’s no other way than to ask her directly?”
It seemed Alice had come to a similar conclusion.
She didn’t particularly think about trying to suppress it or anything like that.
She was simply genuinely curious about what Mia was thinking.
*
“Is there a reason I accepted the Crown Princess’s proposal?”
The next day.
Since it was the weekend, there was plenty of time.
I was worried that Charlotte might refuse to talk to us while having strategy meetings with Mia over the weekend, but it seemed she had no intention of doing such a thing.
Well, in reality, it was just the position of the student council president. Although Alice and Charlotte were holding onto their pride, I believe they also thought it wasn’t as important as all that.
While they could influence the opinions within the academy, and to some extent, affect the academy itself, those who desperately needed that influence didn’t usually include royals or nobles.
Unless they were living suppressed by the royal or imperial family, the Emperor, who had completed absolute power, or the still-viable Imperial family, or even Charlotte, a foreign princess, wouldn’t need to control the influence of the empire’s academy.
Yet still, surely the reason for running in the election was primarily because they wanted to.
“Yeah. Well…”
Asking, “Aren’t you usually not into this sort of thing?” wasn’t a very good idea.
“I was just curious why you accepted Charlotte’s proposal.”
“Is it because I’m from Crowfield?”
Fortunately, Mia brought up the topic of her family instead of her personality’s flaws. Alice visibly relaxed and nodded.
“Yeah, I was just thinking it might be a bit awkward given the family-to-family situation.”
Of course, aligning with Princess Alice might be even more awkward. The ill-fated relationship between Velbur and Crowfield was an irreparable feud from a long time ago, but the bad blood between Crowfield and the royal family was only from one generation ago, and Mia, the current generation, had also suffered from it.
However, the process of Mia and us becoming close was something we had witnessed firsthand together. It was a reason that didn’t need to be asked.
In that sense, one could somewhat guess the reason Mia could become friends with Charlotte, but… aside from that, I was curious if that reason could really surpass Mia’s personal inclinations.
“That might… be true, but…”
Mia raised her gaze slightly as she spoke.
After a brief moment of silence, it seemed she had been lost in thought, as she slowly opened her mouth.
“Actually, I’m not really sure either.”
“Not really sure?”
“When Princess Charlotte made that proposal to me, I involuntarily accepted.”
“So what you’re saying is… it was too sudden and you answered without even realizing it?”
“It’s a bit different, so…”
Mia frowned slightly as if explaining was hard, tilted her head, and after a moment of contemplation, she finally spoke up.
“She was the first person to offer me something like that.”
“Ah…”
At Mia’s words, Alice seemed to realize something.
“Actually, I’ve always hated stepping forward. I worried about whether I could do well if I were entrusted with something important, and until last year, I was thinking that I shouldn’t be doing it at all.”
She must have been referring to the time she was plotting to kill me.
“I thought that if I talked with others, they would figure out what I was really thinking. Just the thought of thinking that was a dangerous matter in itself. So I didn’t make plans for important tasks and kept my distance from other people. Because that was the most important thing for me.”
Mia paused for a moment before continuing.
“However, after I let go of that thought and became friends with all of you… well, I actually still didn’t have any thoughts of wanting to step forward at that time either. I was quite content with the way I had been living up until then, and it was just more pleasant to stay locked up in my room, reading books and studying magic. Above all, I didn’t even think I could do well if I were entrusted with such an important role.”
In some sense, that was true for us too.
Since Mia hadn’t spoken up about wanting to do anything, we thought she wouldn’t want to do it. Of course, Alice probably always had the idea of making me vice president from the very beginning. I didn’t think she had even thought about proposing it to Mia.
Yet, even aside from the student council president role, we had never thought of Mia representing us in doing something.
“Princess Charlotte came and persuaded me. At first, I outright refused, saying I had never thought of doing something like that, but she kept persuading me until I gave in, should I say I was persuaded in the end?”
Mia said this with a shy smile on her face.
“Somehow, when I heard that I could keep doing it, it began to feel like I could actually do it…”
Alice and I stared at Mia’s smile, lost in thought for a while.
“So that’s how it was.”
It wasn’t some grand reason.
But since it wasn’t such a grand reason, it was much more understandable than any other political motive.
If someone you consider among your closest friends believes you can do something that you didn’t even think you could do, you probably wouldn’t think to refuse it.
That being said, while I told Alice I wouldn’t refuse the vice president role from the beginning, the truth is I had never thought of refusing it.
“Okay, I got it.”
Alice replied with a refreshing expression.
“Then for a while, we’ll be rivals.”
At Alice’s declaration, Mia smiled. Well, it seemed she was trying to put on a brave smile, but it didn’t quite work out. The corners of her lips quivered and twisted, her face was flushed red, and her eyes were fluttering.
But still, it was a look that might just barely fit the word “hopeful.”
“Ah, let’s do our best from now on.”
“Yeah, I’ll definitely win.”
“We won’t be losing either.”
It was quite different from when they were in front of Charlotte.
I mean, if she acted like this in front of Charlotte, Mia would probably be crushed.
…Wait, could it be that Charlotte lured Mia in knowing all this?
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