I thought long and hard about how I could present the Sword Saint’s answer without mentioning my name, but the conclusion I arrived at was that there was ‘no way’.
I believed that I was the biggest reason this world was diverging from the original story. And the Sword Saint’s answer was closely related to that ‘reason’.
However, if I explained the situation while neatly omitting the reason, I would inevitably be unable to answer the question, ‘So why did the Sword Saint apply for the position of teacher?’
It was probably that reason why the Sword Saint laughed at me.
That guy probably knew from the beginning that I would end up in such a situation. So he partly teased me and guided the conversation in that direction.
In the end, I was the one who walked into the trap.
So I couldn’t blame anyone else, which made it even more awkward.
For days, I spent my time unable to do anything with myself. I was truly grateful that Jennifer was not our homeroom teacher. If she had been, I wouldn’t have had the chance to run off to the dorm the moment class ended.
For some reason, Jennifer hadn’t sent a student to find me, nor did she come looking for me. I wasn’t sure if she was giving me time, or if the teachers at the academy had reached a different conclusion on their own.
But for me… well, it’s a bit awkward to call it a good thing, but at least I managed to buy some time, right?
But even so, there were limits. No matter who I was, I understood that I couldn’t keep putting this off indefinitely. So as each day passed, I grew more anxious.
About four days after my meeting with the Sword Saint, Alice began to look at me suspiciously. Since she had a knack for reading my emotions while I was trying to keep a straight face, it was only natural that she would easily catch on to my current expression, which was much less controlled.
As I was at the point of giving up and considering just telling Jennifer everything—
“Do you want to summon a Gryphon for the academy festival?”
“Um, well, not exactly summon, just something like having it fly around in the sky.”
—Surprisingly enough, the student council, who were busy preparing for the cultural festival, requested a meeting with me.
As I explained before, the imperial family holds a somewhat different status than other noble families. They donate the most, but meddling in budget execution would look rather poor. It would be like saying, “I donated money, so do it my way.”
That might be expected in a completely capitalist society, but in this world, which is marked by extreme capitalism alongside a stark aristocracy and imperialism, such justifications and pride are very important.
Although Alice and I attended the same academy, we ended up in this complicated situation due to overlapping circumstances: Alice, now the Crown Princess and second in line to the emperor, and me. It never crossed my mind that they would request something from us like this.
“You do know that Gryphons are ferocious beasts, right?”
As Alice squinted slightly while saying that, every member of the student council flinched.
…To be honest, describing it as just a ferocious beast is an understatement. A Gryphon could tear apart a tiger or lion with just its claws.
Or roast them with magic.
Right now, it’s just lounging in the imperial palace garden, sitting around and eating, making it hard to tell if it’s a flying pig or a Gryphon. But for now, it seemed like a legendary beast… or something similar. It was also a symbol of the Empire.
There seemed to be numerous of them, but strangely, this one hadn’t returned to where its kind lived.
“Knowing it’s a ferocious beast, I suppose you’d be satisfied with just watching it fly through the sky.”
When I said that, the student council president nodded quickly.
“May I ask how you came to such a thought?”
Honestly, I was a bit curious whose brainchild this was. Leaving aside the fact they were trying to involve Alice and me, the audacity to bring a Gryphon to the academy festival was worth points in my book.
They were clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
“Ah, well, that’s….”
The student council president averted his gaze as if it was troublesome, but the other students all turned their heads away to evade eye contact. No loyalty at all. Although, I wasn’t sure if there was such a thing as loyalty among nobles.
“…There are two guests from another country in the first-year class, aren’t there?”
Charlotte and Rena. While it’s acceptable for Charlotte, since she’s a princess and speaks formally, the autonomous region governed by the military likely had a more ambiguous nobility system than the Empire yet still uses formal language. If you think about it that way, it would be quite an ordeal to look down on people from other nations that do not match titles one-to-one.
It wouldn’t cause a major issue to underestimate commoners as mere peasants, but what if that person was the child of a nation’s leader? Then the issue becomes significant. If the person looking down were a Duke of the Empire, it could escalate from being a personal issue to an international matter.
Having reached that conclusion, I nodded.
“Additionally, this cultural festival is different from previous ones as it falls between the last day of the year and the first day of the new year.”
Ah, I think I get what they were trying to say.
It seemed Alice also figured out what the student council president was hinting at, but her expression remained somewhat strained.
“So… I thought it might not be a bad idea to demonstrate just how impressive our country’s abilities are as the continents’ dominant power…”
As we remained silent, the student council president’s voice trailed off until only silence remained.
It was a valid point.
Both Charlotte and Rena were daughters of high positions in their respective nations. While Rena was one thing, Charlotte was a literal princess, the rightful heir to the next throne.
And it wasn’t unusual for parents, siblings, or relatives of those students to visit during the academy cultural festival. Nobles had their social events, and commoners had opportunities to showcase their abilities before those nobles.
If Charlotte’s father, the King of Velbur, visited this place, he wouldn’t be coming alone. There would be some nobles who assisted him, and then those who served those nobles might come along… there could be an entire delegation.
It made sense why the student council felt pressured. Showing the Empire’s symbolism directly wasn’t a bad idea either.
If Charlotte’s father were to actually come, that is.
When a king from one nation visits another, it’s vastly different from a president or prime minister going abroad. No matter how much a president represents a country, they aren’t ‘royalty’. In a crisis that might lead to the president’s death, a new one can simply be elected.
There would be social upheaval, but a presidential system has contingencies in place for such events. It wouldn’t matter whether the new president is of the same bloodline as the previous one. In fact, suggesting otherwise would be considered foolish.
But when it comes to a king, especially one with power befitting ‘a king’, haphazardly visiting another nation is dangerous. A king is an irreplaceable figure. The king’s authority stems from legitimacy, and that legitimacy must not be recklessly moved around. They should firmly sit at the center of their own country.
In that sense, Charlotte attending this academy is an incredibly risky action by Velbur’s standards. It means the ‘next king’ of their nation is learning in another country that could potentially be a hostile one.
In this universe, with its European-themed setting, it might be fine, but from an East Asian perspective, it could easily have been interpreted as taking a hostage.
“Rather than causing unnecessary problems by focusing on appearances—”
“I’ll cooperate.”
It seems Alice reached a similar conclusion as I did, trying to refuse the student council president’s proposal. However, my thoughts were different.
Since the Empire was born under the name of the Fanggriffon, there has been no record of anyone flying through the skies atop a Gryphon. It’s almost as if there should have been some fabricated story, yet there was truly ‘none’.
What does that mean?
Exactly.
It means that no one knows how much effort and time it takes to train a Gryphon.
In other words, if I were to just hide away and emerge saying, “I was out training a Gryphon,” there wouldn’t be anyone who would understand.
And to say that once again differently, it means I could finally have a plausible reason to put off my meeting with Jennifer.
“So on the day of the cultural festival, I’ll show you the sight of the Gryphon cutting through the sky.”
Thus, I accepted those words.
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