Magic Academy City Lindis, last day of summer vacation.
Inside a room at East Dormitory where students from Hafan stayed.
Four girls who arrived at the academy as early as possible, while taking out their baggage from their respective bag, were gossiping excitedly.
“Hey, hey, everyone, have you heard? About this year’s freshmen.”
“My, what are you talking about?”
“It seems that the Aurelia who is reputed to be a wicked woman is going to enroll in this academy.”
A girl who seemed to have good knowledge of a certain matter began to speak unnaturally with an overdramatic voice.
Her older brother who liked rumors was said to regularly send letters containing gossip to his sister who was in the academy.
Of course, the other three girls also joined in the fun scandalous story.
“No way, the rumored wicked woman of these days, was it the girl from Aurelia Ducal?”
“Exactly her. A while ago, the teacher was talking about it with a blue face.”
In response to that mention, the other three girls exclaimed “Oh dear, how unpleasant!” while getting excited, and seemed to be having fun.
“She’s an outrageously greedy woman, right?”
“It is said that she bought up a whole district of the warehouse town in the Northwest in its entirety.”
“Isn’t she gathering treasures from all over the continent?”
“She pestered His Excellency the Duke to obtain many expensive jewels that were beyond what an individual should have.”
Everyone was imagining a young lady who was delighted to wear improper amounts of jewels and ornaments lasciviously.
She had to be shamelessly decorated and unseemly, they nodded to one another in agreement.
“I have heard of her too. She doesn’t even think of other people as a persons and treats them in high-handed manner.”
“She pushes a genius alchemist around as if he was somehow exclusive to herself.”
“I’ve heard that she holds the weakness of the Turm family in her hand and makes them provide her with materials and human resources like hot water.”
“She also used her own influence to hush up the Hunter Guild and made the sea serpent suppression into her own achievement.”
While gossiping excitedly, the four girls unpacked their baggage promptly.
It seemed that a good scandal was good motivation for work.
“There are also rumors like this. That she is a heathen and crazy about some pagan G.o.ddess that she doesn’t fear G.o.d.”
“It is said that she’s gathering paganism anecdotes. Let alone from this continent, she even gathers from that nasty Gigantia.”
“It seems that she muttered things like ‘I’m glad that the contamination in this place was burned off cleanly’ in front of a church which was destroyed by a lightning strike.”
“Oh dear. Perhaps, the criminal was Erica Aurelia?”
“Sshh! It will be a disaster if we’re heard by someone!”
A girl with mature atmosphere that had been turning around to listen, looked around with her index finger in front of her mouth.
As one would expect, treating her as the criminal who destroyed the churches would be a little too much.
“Not only that, but Erica Aurelia is an incredibly lascivious girl.”
“It is said that she seduces His Highness Auguste at every opportunity.”
“Well, how insolent! Is she after the Crown Princess position?”
The girl who was longing for Auguste raised her voice.
The Crown Princess had to be a virtuous girl that was suitable for him, she seemed annoyed.
“There are rumors saying that Klaus-sama fell in love with that woman, right?”
“Isn’t that just a groundless rumor? Aah, Klaus-sama……how heartrending.”
“There are also rumors saying that men of unknown origins are serving her. There was someone who saw her with a big man who covered his face along with a beautiful young man with tanned skin coming and going out of dubious places.”
“Aah, how repulsive! So you say that such an evil woman will come into our traditional magic academy?”
A girl whose male cousin planned to enroll starting from the new semester sighed.
Even Auguste and Klaus were in danger.
She was worried how the innocent boy who would become a cla.s.smate of such a woman would turn out.
“Like mother, like daughter. You know, her mother was also an equally wicked woman.”
“My, this is the first time I heard that.”
“It seems that His Excellency Duke Aurelia suppresses that information, so I don’t know the details, but she was referred to as Poisonous b.u.t.terfly.”
“I’ve heard that there was a daughter of an Earl who died because of the Poisonous b.u.t.terfly.”
“Erica Aurelia’s lasciviousness and high-handedness are inherited from her mother, huh.”
“She is not just an ordinary pampered and willful lady, she is a trueborn wicked woman. Aah, how terrible.”
While being completely immersed in the gossips of the wicked women, the four girls finished unpacking their luggage and dressing themselves properly.
“Now then everyone, what should we do after this?”
“We should go out to the city and shop.”
“My, well then, I wonder if I can join you.”
“Yes, of course you can.”
“Have you heard? A new product of that famous perfume store that opened a branch store in Lindis since last year—”
Their interests shifted to perfumes and accessories, and Erica Aurelia was driven to the back of their mind.
While laughing loudly together, the young ladies were walking away.
☆
Magic Academy City Lindis.
Students were supposed to live in a dormitory built within the academy premises.
East, West, South, North dormitories to match the students’ origins, and the Central dormitory for the scholarship students belonging to King’s Scholar.
I, Erica Aurelia, arrived in my room at the girls’ wing of the West Dormitory before the entrance ceremony.
『Is this all the luggage you have, Erica?』
“Yes.”
Tirnanog who was disguised as a small golem made of star steel carried the last baggage.
It was a large leather bag that was as big as his body.
I looked around the room where many bags of the same size piled up.
This room was a single room in the corner of the top floor of the dormitory.
A large built-in closet.
A canopy bed, a writing desk, and a chaise lounge.
In the small but clean built-in bathroom, there were a bathtub and a toilet.
It was an extravagant room of a privileged n.o.ble, which was likely to be an object of jealousy of the students in the shared, large rooms.
But with this single room, I could talk with Tirnanog and Palug without worry.
Thankfully.
『Ufufu~, this is nice. Since it’s a dorm I thought it would be cramped, but this is wi~de!』
『Umu, not bad.』
Palug who was in her cat form stretched herself out languidly on the canopy bed as soon as possible.
Tirnanog who finished his task sprawled on the couch, taking a short break.
I also sat on the chair in front of the writing desk.
“It looks like this was formerly a room for a senior aristocratic girl. It’s very extravagant.”
It had been six and a half years since that spring when I remembered the memory of my previous life.
Finally, the day that the story of 『Liber Monstrorum ~Phantom Beasts and the Winter Princess~』 would start had arrived.
Tomorrow was the entrance ceremony of the magic academy.
“I will proceed cautiously for a year in order to escape the oracle starting from tomorrow. So, I might request even more troublesome things from both of you……”
I wondered how much Tirnanog and Palug had been helping me in recent years.
And we would be involved in even more difficult things when academy life began.
『Don’t worry. You know there is no way I would be bothered by the things I do for your sake.』
『Right, right. I wouldn’t unreasonably dislike them either, you know Erica?』
“Yeah……thank you.”
While feeling the kindness of the two of them, I looked back on the events in the past six years.
Investigation of the personal information about the heroine and the capture targets.
Investigation about the extent of the contamination of the church underground altars throughout the continent of Ichthyes.
The subjugation of the krakens which increased abnormally in the northwestern coastal waters.
After Palug’s power had recovered perfectly, the purification of the corrupted altars on Ichthyes continent.
Investigation of the personal information of the teachers and students related to Lindis.
Investigation of the phantom beasts in the area around Lindis.
Investigated and cleaned up the corrupted altars in Ignitia’s territory in Karkinos by having Palug travel over to the continent of Karkinos.
The subjugation of the hordes of sea serpents that had been heading northward to Ichthyes.
Heavy rotation between investigation, purification, and subjugation.
Tirnanog, Palug, and Harold had helped with the hard work that would have been impossible for me to do by myself, without complaint.
Rather, there were many projects that had been delegated completely.
In particular, I couldn’t help much about dealing with the corrupted altars and things like that.
I felt terribly guilty for being a friend that was like the useless boss of a black company.
I managed to get through it thanks to my excellent allies’ efforts.
Thanks to their help, the vampires’ conspiracy that covered the continent had likely been messed up.
Which was nice.
As if I’d stand for them simply making innocent people into offerings on those altars.
In case things turned for the worse and I was plunged into the vampires’ route, it’s likely I’d also be made into such a sacrifice, so it wasn’t just someone else’s problem.
However, it was troubling because the vampires didn’t seem to retreat quietly as they were.
Speaking of troublesome things there was the investigation of personal information of the people related to the game.
Regarding Chloe the heroine, her footprints couldn’t be traced at all as if someone was hiding her.
The same thing happened in regard to the unconfirmed capture target, Claude.
About the other capture target, Brad, we were able to obtain information that was generally known with much difficulty.
Despite having met up with Eduart-oniisama and Actorius-sensei many times, the death flags related to them remained yet unknown.
That said, there were also unexpected benefits.
Since I had subjugated the dangerous marine animals, abundant a.s.sets were acc.u.mulated before I knew it.
Oh, but there was also a failure regarding that.
My ident.i.ty had been exposed when I was on my way to collect the materials during a sea serpent subjugation.
After the rumors spread, I was nicknamed 「Abyss Killer」.
As a nickname for a 14-year-old girl, it felt terribly unsuitable.
Thinking about such a thing, I accidentally leaked a deep sigh of sorrow, “Haah~.”
『Umu, you seem to be tired. Let me finish unpacking.』
“At this rate there will be no s.p.a.ce to even tread on, huh~. Erica, you should rest.”
When Tirnanog was worrying about me, Palug descended from the bed and turned into her human form.
Splitting their labour, she promptly stored the luggage inside the closet and organized the everyday magic tools and accessories that were going to be used immediately.
The two of them were good at taking care of others, and I unconsciously took advantage of that.
Putting in fighting spirit, I got up and reached for my notebook.
“Jeez~, it’s fine to be idle, you know. This child doesn’t change at all~.”
『Isn’t it fine, that’s just how Erica is.』
While comparing them with my notebook, I checked the labels of the leather bags that were nearby.
“Since this has uniforms in it, this will go inside the closet and the doc.u.ments……”
Clothing such as uniforms and dresses were put inside the closet.
Leather bags containing alchemy-related materials and wands should be placed next to the writing desk.
I hesitated on where to put them, but the doc.u.ments were also moved into the closet after a moment of deliberation.
As we unpacked while dividing the labour, most of the luggage we had was also put into order one after another.
When the room was settled to a certain extent, Palug asked me with a curious expression.
“Mm, Erica. Can I ask something?”
“What is it?”
“This is an academy, right? Are there no textbooks?”
Certainly, we didn’t seem to bring anything that was likely to be textbooks.
Did I forget about them while packing the materials related to the death flags!?
……That wasn’t it.
“Well, after the entrance ceremony tomorrow, there seems to be an event called Magical Power Judgement. The textbooks will be distributed after looking at the results of that.”
Magical Power Judgement seemed to be an event to confirm such things as the quality and amount of one’s magical power.
Depending on the result, some cla.s.ses couldn’t be taken. So textbooks were to be handed over after the judgment.
“Aah~, that’s good. I thought that your head was filled with the oracle and you forgot about it.”
“Ah, but. Wait a minute. Maybe—”
Suddenly I felt uneasy and checked the mandatory list once more.
Because I didn’t have to worry about the textbooks, I neglected checking my study materials until this moment.
“I forgot a small size athanor for cla.s.s.”
It was an indispensable studying material of the alchemist students, irrespective of the quality of magical power.
There was going to be a large athanor installed in this room, but I needed a portable small athanor for use during lessons.
『Fumu, can we place an order for it now? Since the baggage has been put in order already.』
“I’m glad that it’s still bright outside~. Rather, there will still be spare time left over even after we shop.”
“That’s true, let’s buy an athanor first and then explore Lindis.”
For precaution, the two phantom beasts put on an amulet that could repel Glam Sight.
With this, it wouldn’t be easy for the formidable true ident.i.ties of the golden cat and the star steel golem to be exposed.
It was an item diverted from failed prototypes made by the new Weapon Development Department of the Turm Shipbuilding Company, instead of by Harold.
Since it was convenient, I also wanted to use it, but because it consumed an unusual amount of magical power, it was exclusively used by the phantom beasts.
『Do not speak unnecessarily, cat.』
『Fu~hnda¹, I also know that much.』
I took the two of them who were bickering as usual in low voices, and headed out to the city of Lindis.
¹ Imagine the gesture of sticking out her tongue and pulling down her eyelid – but vocally, rather than actually.