Three days after the strange war of words between Rine and Penia ended.

Alon finally began to—

“Lady Arsenna, would you please step back?”

“Lady Colina, as I keep telling you, I am still the fiancée, you know?”

Alon finally—

“Mm—but isn’t that only until very soon?”

“That’s something we’ll have to wait and see about, isn’t it?”

Alon.......

“.......”

He looked at Rine and Penia standing on either side of him.

Both wore smiles on their lips, yet neither pair of eyes was smiling at all as they exchanged words with strangely chilling expressions.

The atmosphere around them was so dangerous that it genuinely felt like if they were left alone like this much longer, they might start grabbing each other by the hair and fighting.

Alon awkwardly averted his gaze.

When he looked away, he saw the eyes of the students staring at him.

Even after several days had passed, the students’ gazes had not changed.

If anything had changed, it was probably only the intent behind them.

The female students no longer looked at Alon with cold, exhausted eyes so much as they seemed fascinated by the love battle itself.

As for the male students, they still wore expressions that practically screamed, ‘How the hell did that bastard actually pull this off?’

......Though now that he looked at it, the expressions of the male students did not really feel that different from a few days ago anyway.

‘......And this is supposed to be acting.’

Looking at the two still staring at each other, Alon recalled the conclusion they had reached during their previous discussion.

‘We decided it would be better to maintain this relationship for a while.’

Honestly, he had felt it might have been better to choose one side.

But both Rine and Penia needed to keep moving around together with him during the two months the academy term would last.

In other words, one of them could not simply stay out of sight.

That was why they had concluded it might be better to keep emphasizing the relationship like this.

......That had been the decision, but—

“Hm—is that so? Well, I don’t mind. Everything’s already been decided anyway. If anything, I think you’ll only end up more hurt.”

“Thank you for worrying about something that won’t happen.”

“.......”

The atmosphere was so vicious that it naturally made him think, This really is acting, right?

For a moment, Alon felt as though he was not Palatio Alon, but Taylor Alon.

Then he turned his gaze toward the area beyond the training grounds.

Lunch break.

Outside the field, he saw a beautiful young man with pitch-black hair walking along—

No, Deus.

And around him clung three female students.

‘......Looks like he adapted well.’

In truth, in Deus’s case, it was less that he had adapted well and more that he had no choice but to adapt well.

First of all, he had the face for it.

‘Looks work anywhere....... Though it seems hiding quietly has failed.’

Alon watched Deus, who despite carrying the title of a minor noble from the northern region was attracting attention from the students with looks so striking they made Alon himself unconsciously sigh.

Then he turned his gaze elsewhere and saw a man sitting alone on a distant bench—

No, Evan with his ponytail.

Completely alone, looking exactly like someone silently shouting, ‘Ah, life is so boring—.’

“.......”

On top of that, he was glaring resentfully at Deus.

Out of everyone among them, Evan was actually the one following their original agreement the best.

Alon made a strange expression.

......It did not seem like Evan himself had become a student because he especially wanted to follow their original agreement well.

A few more days passed while the rest of the group each adapted to academy life in their own ways.

Naturally, using the fact that they were all northern border nobles to grow closer, Alon’s group was finally able to gather together properly about one week after entering the academy.

“Lord Alon.”

“What is it?”

“I would like to return to being a guard knight.”

“......Do you think that would even be possible?”

“But—!”

The moment the artifact activated, Evan spoke as though he had been waiting for this chance.

Alon answered him calmly.

At that, Evan let out a groan.

“This place is different from the academy I imagined!”

“In what way......?”

“Nobody talks to me!”

At Evan’s words, sounding genuinely wronged, Penia—who had been quietly listening—spoke with cold eyes.

“Isn’t that just karma?”

“What did I even do!?”

“You said ridiculous nonsense during introductions. If you start babbling things like, ‘If a sweet potato joins the army, does it become a roasted sweet potato,’ who wouldn’t dislike that?”

“Ah—”

At Penia’s words, Alon unconsciously let out a sigh and looked at Evan.

Even if he looked young for his age, perhaps one still could not hide the soul.

While he was thinking that, Evan protested.

“No, was it really that weird?”

“Yes.”

“Wasn’t it funny?”

“......You’re seriously asking that?”

Penia let out a quiet, “Wow......,” while Rine turned her gaze aside with an uncertain expression.

Seeing Evan grow depressed, Alon decided to begin the actual discussion first.

“......Rine. Penia.”

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

“......Now that we’re inside, would you let go?”

“Ah.”

“Right.”

Alon pulled free the hands that had been sealed away by Penia and Rine respectively.

The two released him somewhat awkwardly.

‘......It feels like the skinship has increased a little.’

Of course, part of it was probably for the sake of acting as fiancées, but even so, Alon felt like the number of situations where they clung to him had increased quite a bit.

Soon, he let out a short sigh.

“First, as I mentioned through the code phrase before, it has been confirmed that traces of the Church of War exist inside the academy.”

“Then our objective is—”

“It’s simple. Live academy life without getting discovered, determine where the ritual site is, and deal with it when the ritual begins.”

The task Alon’s group needed to accomplish this time was simple if one looked only at the process.

Their plan was to find the place where the Church of War intended to carry out the ritual and stop it through forceful intervention when it began.

“......Wouldn’t it be better to just deal with them before the ritual even starts?”

Evan asked.

But Alon shook his head.

“If I could, I would prefer that. But then it would not be a complete solution.”

They could stop the ritual simply by finding the Apostles inside the academy and wiping them out immediately.

But that would not be truly resolving the incident so much as temporarily postponing it.

‘......The Wanderer said the Apostles can only perform the ritual once.’

According to what he had heard from the Wanderer, the Apostles could only carry out the ritual a single time.

Which meant that if they did not perform it here, they could still perform it once somewhere else.

‘We need to let them begin the ritual, and then eliminate the Apostles.’

Thinking that, Alon spoke.

“Anyway, the important information for us is the ritual site and the time of the ritual. Has anyone managed to determine either one?”

“......I still haven’t.”

“Same here.”

“Me neither.”

“......As expected.”

Alon nodded as though he had anticipated that.

Over the past week, he himself had searched the academy thoroughly, roaming all over the place whenever he was not in class.

But the only thing he had found was the trace of the Church of War—or more precisely, traces of Divine blood—on the very first day.

Other than that, he had found nothing.

“Mmm—”

As Alon fell into thought, Evan, who had remained silent ever since becoming depressed earlier, finally spoke.

“Lord Alon? I do have one thing.”

“......You do?”

“Yes. Of course, since it’s just a rumor spreading among the students, it might be nonsense, but there’s apparently a rumor that one of the students—and one of the professors who hasn’t arrived yet but supposedly will soon—is connected to the Church of War. The student’s name is Leila...... apparently.”

At Evan’s report, Alon rubbed his chin thoughtfully and spoke.

“The professor aside...... can you get close to the student?”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“......Well, we’re in the same class, so I don’t think there’s any reason I couldn’t become friendly with her—”

“Just in case, I’ll approach her too. We’re in the same class as well.”

At Evan and Penia’s words, Alon nodded.

“We’ve been gathered too long already, and that itself would look strange, so let’s break up here for today. Keep searching for the ritual site. And you two should try getting close to the student rumored to be connected to the Church of War.”

“Yes.”

The group nodded at Alon’s words.

After watching them, Alon left and soon headed toward the dormitory.

“Hoo—”

‘......Why are they trying to perform the ritual inside an academy?’

Sitting in a chair placed off to one side, he wondered that briefly before shrugging.

There was no point trying to figure it out alone anyway—

And more importantly, if they managed to stop the ritual, he might learn the answer then.

So—

‘......Hopefully Evan and Penia can gather some information.’

Thinking that, Alon closed his eyes.

####

Recently, Contanias had been feeling stable.

And in quite a pleasant way, at that.

Of course, if someone asked whether he had not always been in a good mood ever since the consecration barrier was established in the Empire, that would not exactly be wrong either...... but anyway, his current mood was even better than that.

Because the issue involving Alon, which had been tormenting him recently, had been resolved.

No matter how much satisfaction he gained from obtaining abilities and developing them, the conflict with the guardian dragon caused by Alon had been a major source of stress for him.

However, after Alon’s recent visit, the discord between Contanias and the guardian dragon had effectively disappeared.

And once Contanias learned that Alon was not human, he no longer felt inferior to him.

In other words, with only a single visit, Alon had brought inner peace to Contanias.

Anyway, because of that, Contanias had recently been training his abilities in comfort.

“Uh....... Mm.......”

And now—

inside his office, he was facing a young girl.

One who had not been scheduled to appear.

A girl who had suddenly appeared at some point while he was working.

“Hello?”

Yutia greeted him with a smile.

But Contanias could not smile.

Rather—

“.......”

He froze.

Before, he would have been startled, but he still would have been able to speak.

But the reason Contanias reacted this way now was—

“—”

—because of the eyes.

The eyes he had obtained.

They allowed him to truly “see” Yutia.

Tremble—

The hand that had been calmly holding a pen just moments ago began shaking violently.

As though he had seen something he was never meant to see, his eyes trembled.

His heart froze as though paralyzed.

But at that moment—

“Khk—!”

Miraculously, Contanias was able to breathe again.

Because the “thing” that had been visible in his eyes just moments ago vanished as though it had never existed in the first place.

And then—

“Sorry about that. I figured you’d be able to see it, but I wasn’t considerate enough.”

Yutia spoke as though nothing had happened.

Contanias unconsciously trembled while looking at her.

“Mm, what brings you here......?”

He barely managed to ask.

At his words—

“Ah, actually, I came to ask a favor.”

“......A favor?”

“Yes. I need a status.”

Yutia smiled.

“A status extremely close to Taylor Alon.”

And said that.