Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 99: Dean Of Familiars
Mirei knelt down in the living room with her hands pressed to the ground. She was scared... genuinely and properly scared in a way she hadn’t been in a long time, because how was she supposed to know that the Princess herself was living with Koya of all people?
She should have anticipated it.
The Princess went where she wanted and nobody stopped her, and a girl like Hakua deciding she wanted to be near a particular person meant she would find a way to be there regardless of how it looked.
Mirei had simply not considered the possibility until she was already in the tub and she heard the door.
As for how she knew despite the realistic disguise... she could never forget those eyes.
Those same eyes that had glared at her with contempt when she had tried to use her skill on the Princess... now they were looking down at her from a different face entirely.
’T-this woman is interested in him as well?’ Her lips trembled as she kept her gaze on the floor. Misora stared down at her and then a small smile broke on her lips.
They were alone in the room since Disguise Master had gone to help Koya.
"So why did you enter my residence?"
"I-I... I came to tell him that I apprehended the maids that tried to poison him." Mirei said after a short pause.
One thing about Hakua was that her eyes could tell when someone was lying, so half-truths were the only thing that would cut it here though she could also read half-truths too.
"I see... that’s why you sneaked into his tub?" Misora took a step forward and Mirei flinched. If Itsuki could see her like this he probably wouldn’t believe it.
"I-I-I just wanted to see how the tubs looked and I wanted to ask Koya-kun something I swear." She raised both hands up.
Misora took a step back and sighed.
"Whatever... Come help me prepare the dinner table. Since it’s already late, will you stay for dinner?" Misora asked and Mirei looked up at her with surprise.
"I can stay?" She blinked.
Usually the Princess leaned toward cruel... The last punishment she’d handed Mirei involved several spears covered in royal mana fired directly into her body. It was a horrifying experience that she had not forgotten.
"Yes, however under no circumstances are you allowed to tell Koya-kun that I am... you know what I mean." Misora said. ’He might have forgiven Misora but I still don’t know if he’s completely forgiven Hakua.’
So she would stay Misora for a very long while. Regardless of everything else, she still wanted him to be her Knight.
"Now get to arranging the dining, will you?" Misora asked and Mirei got to her feet immediately and ran to the dining room. Misora watched her go and let out a small chuckle.
’Bullying this girl is amazing.’ She thought, and followed her in.
...
"So would you mind telling me about why all of these maids are suddenly interested in me?" Koya asked.
He was out of the tub and pulling on casual clothes... a singlet and trousers, since he was home, he wanted to dress very casually.
Disguise Master stood facing the door, giving him her back.
"I... have no idea what you’re talking about." She said.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
Disguise Master let out a sigh.
"Well, the moment I entered Maid Class... they were really pestering me to know more about you and I had to answer questions, including your size down there. I’m sorry" Her cheeks reddened.
She was ashamed.
’This is even worse than that mission.’
Despite that, she waited for him to respond. Would he be angry? Not that she cared... however it would interfere with her mission as his personal maid if it became an issue.
"Oh." Koya said. "I don’t mind then."
"You don’t mind?" She turned around to look at him and immediately regretted it.
He was mid-way through pulling on his singlet and she could see the stomach muscles that she had been refusing to think about for several days now.
She faced forward again fast.
"Like the view?" He teased.
Her face went red so she opened the door and walked out without another word, leaving Koya alone in the bathroom with a smile on his face.
’She’s really cute. Most of these girls are, if you ignore the fact that most of them are cold-blooded murderers.’ He thought as he walked out of the bathroom and took the turn toward his room instead of the dining room, closing the door quietly behind him so Misora wouldn’t hear and come asking questions.
’So where do I keep this now?’ The egg materialized in his hand... it was heavy and warmer than before.
He looked around the room. ’I can’t put it on the desk.’
He would have preferred keeping it back at Star Mansion however the Academy was stricter with movement during the first week back after suspension and he couldn’t make the trip until Saturday. The egg was staying here for now.
’The closet then.’ He opened it.
Alongside the hanging spare uniforms he had ordered and folded clothes stacked on the side shelf, there was just enough clear space at the back corner.
He set the egg down carefully, adjusting it until it sat stable and wasn’t going to shift during the night.
’The elemental crystals are completely drained too.’ He had been rotating them out to keep the temperature stable before HeroGod called.
They were all empty now... every one of them, which meant there was nothing left to supply the dragon egg however he didn’t need them anymore.
Instead he opened his Inventory and the tab appeared next to him. He was honestly surprised that the System had an Inventory and it had been given to him for free instead of him having to pay like two hundred thousand FP for it.
「Don’t threaten me with a good time Host~」
’Go fuck yourself.’ He thought and tapped on the tab of the DragonHart Amber and the air around him distorted in a blue glow as a small crimson ball floated in the air.
The instant it came out, a wave of heat hit his face and the room became several degrees hotter in an instant.
"Is this the constant low heat that it’s talking about?" He muttered under his breath while raising a hand to shield his face and then he covered his other hand in mana.
The heat was intense enough that even drawing it close felt like reaching toward an open flame and this was supposedly the restrained version. "The explanation said I should place it next to the Dragon Egg."
He took it and felt the mana on his hand sizzle before placing it next to the egg right on top of his clothes with a wince.
He was going to lose some good clothes from that heat however much to his surprise, the heat stopped immediately after and instead it went right into the egg making it glow a bit.
The amber didn’t radiate outward anymore but rather every bit of it pulled inward, drawn straight into the shell like the egg had been waiting for it.
"Nice." Koya muttered under his breath, the earlier he got the Dragon the easier it would be for his battles moving forward.
He closed the door of the closet just as the room door opened and he flinched once again.
Mirei was standing in the doorway in a maid costume.
"What are you doing here... and why are you wearing that?" He asked.
"My clan owes the Tachibana clan a favor so I decided to act as Lady Misora’s maid for today... she gave me permission." She straightened up. "Koya-sama, would you like to come for dinner?"
"Sure, I’m coming." He said. He reached past her and pulled out a box from his storage ring onto the desk. It was the hero manga that he had started reading.
Mirei’s eyes went to the box.
’He reads manga too.’ She thought. Same as Shion, not that she and Shion were friends... Mirei had just caught her with manga once or twice and remembered it.
Koya walked past her and she fell into step behind him as they headed toward the dining room.
Being watched and sought after by the Princess made him a target several levels above anything Mirei could afford to be adjacent to.
If she kept pushing the pet angle with someone the Princess had already marked, she was going to get herself killed sooner or later, and the Princess wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
’But I can’t give up either.’ The thought sat uncomfortably in her chest.
She wanted to understand why he said no. Most of the nobles had even offered themselves to her without hesitation... a lot of them had practically nearly killed themselves just to be her pet.
He had declined like it wasn’t even worth the time to consider and she couldn’t find the logic in it. She didn’t know what she was missing and that bothered her more than the rejection itself.
Koya reached the dining room and Misora waved him toward the seat beside her so he sat down.
Mirei and Disguise Master went back and forth from the kitchen and returned with several dishes, setting them out across the table... the spread was larger than it needed to be for four people but Misora had been stress cooking again.
"You two can join us as well." Misora said, and gave Mirei a small bow. "Thank you for helping out, my lady."
Mirei stuttered a little.
"N-no problem. I like dressing like a maid too." She took a seat and Disguise Master sat across from her.
"Koya-kun, why don’t you open up and let me feed you~" Misora said, picking up a piece of ramen with her chopsticks and holding it toward his lips. "Say ahh~"
...
"Master, I have what you requested." Disguise Master knocked on his door.
Several hours had passed since dinner and it was nearing midnight. From down the hall, Misora’s room was quiet, she had turned in early and the lower noble had decided she was sleeping in the same bed, which was not phrased as a question.
Koya opened the door and she handed over a slim package and his Academy phone.
"Okay, how much did it cost?"
"You said you wanted a high-end laptop so I spent ten thousand Individual Points for it." She said.
"Thank you." He patted her head with his free hand and she went still. "Now get some sleep... You deserve it."
The door closed. Disguise Master stood in the hallway looking at the door with the warmth from where his hand had been on her head was still there.
She stood there for a few seconds then she walked away trying not to blush.
"Good... now that’s settled." Koya muttered, dropping back onto his bed and pulling the package onto his lap.
The laptop inside looked remarkably close to a Macbook with the same slim profile except where the apple would have been there was a pear.
He found the charger underneath, plugged it in, and pulled out the receipt while waiting for it to boot.
...
「ALI General Shop」
「PEARTOP PRO」
「Model: Peartop Pro 14」
「Payment: 10, 000 IP」
│ Owner : Amagi Koya │
│ Status : Registered │
...
"Peartop Pro, huh." He turned it over once in his hands and then opened it. The startup logo spun on the loading screen while he picked up his phone.
Ogata had already been at work.
He had reached out through an encrypted channel within the messaging app and told him everything... The Academy had layered the mid-term question files behind a wall of duplicates and fakes spread across the network to make retrieval difficult but Ogata had gotten the original pretty quickly and encrypted it.
「Clicking the link I’ve sent over will take you to a tab where you can access all of the files. It can only be opened with a laptop so use a good one at least and compare it with your "leaks". I will begin the work and it will be presentable before Sunday.」
The laptop finished booting and the title screen appeared.
「Welcome, Amagi Koya」
「Press Enter to proceed」
"I’m already registered." He said to himself and hit Enter. The laptop connected to ALI’s network automatically and it didn’t take him long to link it with his messaging app.
’That’s a lot of messages.’ There were several from classmates and two from Renji and Mio. He opened Mio’s first, recognizing the profile picture.
「Mio: Had fun with Misora-chan today huh? You forgot I existed.」
’Is she giving attitude?’ He blinked. Or was it Pale... Mio’s other personality sending the message? He typed back.
「Koya: Well I was a bit busy today and I doubt we’ll be free tomorrow either. The Dean of Familiars is coming to ALI after all.」
He was about to switch tabs when her profile picture gained a small green dot... She was online.
「Mio: There’s a possibility that we won’t get selected to meet the Familiars, however if we do, I’ll protect you.」
’Definitely Pale.’ Mio herself was more reserved than this, or so he thought.
「Koya: I can definitely protect myself. Who knows, I might need to protect you instead.」
There was a pause from her end and he was already moving toward the next tab when her reply came in.
「Mio: I wouldn’t mind it honestly. In fact, I’ll hold you to it.」
He hearted the message and thought about it for a second.
’What do I type now... I want to end it here.’ He looked at the cursor blinking in the text box. His lip quirked and he typed.
「Koya: Goodnight Cutie. Wishing you sweet dreams and when I say that I mean you should dream about me 🩷」
He closed the chat before she could respond. From the sidebar he could see the moment the message had been read however she didn’t reply.
The green dot stayed active for a few more seconds and then went dark.
’A bit cringe but it worked.’ He thought.
The screen blinked once and a new tab opened with a clean row of labeled files and each one had a different subject heading.
He tapped on Math.
The file opened and the mid-term math questions filled the screen... it looked clean and numbered, exactly as they would appear on the paper.
He reached into his storage ring and pulled out the merch which was the physical question collection from the manga merchandise bundle, opened it to Math and held it flat next to the screen.
He went through them line by line.
"Oh, they’re the same." He sat up.
A few questions had minor wording differences and two had different numerical values but apart from that, they were the same.
"Well then."
He minimized the tab, went back to Ogata’s chat window, and typed.
「Keep up the good work.」
He closed the laptop and set it on the desk... He was asleep before the screen finished going dark.
...
The next morning, Saki’s throat grew dry and she massaged it.
’Mother is hooking me up with yet another suitor... and I left Koya-kun in the middle of our lesson yesterday.’ She thought while staring at the ceiling.
She didn’t care about the suitors... not a single one of them, not the ones with good affinities, not the ones with good family names, and definitely not the ones her mother described as very promising over the phone.
She’d genuinely rather marry Koya than sit across from another man selected for his compatibility score.
Her mother wanted a grandchild and wasn’t being subtle about it anymore but the suitor wasn’t the only reason her throat was dry.
She was standing at the side of the Orientation Hall with the rest of the teaching staff, all of them lined up facing the full gathered student body.
The Hall was very quiet and Saki focused on the new entrance in the room.
A silver squirrel with pale gold stripes running along its back from the base of its ears to the tip of its tail crossed the Hall floor at speed threading between chair legs without slowing then ran straight up the side of the podium.
At the top it stopped and erupted into a clean puff of smoke that rolled outward... the smoke faded moments after and standing at the podium in its place was a man.
He was somewhere in his late forties, he looked lean without being thin with shoulder-length black hair separated into two low ponytails that fell forward over his shoulders.
He wore a deep burgundy haori over a black high-collar shirt with the haori’s inner lining being pale gold which was the same shade as the stripes on his Familiar’s fur.
His trousers were dark and tailored, tucked into knee-high boots that looked like they had covered real ground and a single silver earring hung from his left ear in a small crescent.
He cleared his throat.
"Morning to all of you aspiring Familiar Masters of ALI." His voice reached every part of the Hall without effort. "I am the Dean of Familiars, however you may call me Lord Haruki. The reason I am here today is to choose the classes that will accompany me to Familiar Isle."
He paused. "Please remain seated. This will only take a moment."
The Hall stayed quiet...
The Dean of Familiars had arrived.
