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Chapter 147

After I returned to the nostalgic Galois Magic Academy, the fact that I had been knighted wasn’t the only thing that had changed and attracted the attention of the other students.

In addition to all the requests I had piled up until now, somehow even more and more requests were coming in, with people requesting me specifically in order to test my strength.

「Isn’t it fair to say they are being too bold?」

When we entered the office, and I took a bundle of requests in my hand, I sought the agreement of Selina to my left, and Dramina to my right.

Selina had a slightly troubled look on her face as she turned her blue eyes toward the bundle of papers in my hand.

It’s not praiseworthy that they’re all trying to test me, but should I be happy that they’re all evaluating me highly?

「I think it’s as you say, Dran, but it also means they think highly of you, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Maybe not all of them want you because of your prospective future, but the fact that so many people are interested in you is something you can be proud of, I think」

「You’re right. I should try to look on the bright side like that. Well, even if I have you two help me, it’d be impossible to complete all of these requests. No, if I use clones, I might be able to, but it would be bad if I reveal all my cards too soon. What do you think, Dramina?」

In times like these, Dramina can be relied on to look at things from the bigger picture because she has the sharpness as a former queen, but she just turned her veiled face away, and kept her mouth shut.

Fumu? It’s rare for Dramina to show her own displeasure, and to display refusal like this. Truth be told, although it didn’t show on my face, I was very surprised.

「Dramina?」

I called her name again, but my beautiful queen grumpily turned her face away from me. Fumumu, this is a really strong display of her will, or so Selina and I both thought as we shared glances.

What could be wrong? Was it something we did? Those are the words we exchanged through our gazes alone.

「Dramina, is something the matter? Are you angry?」

It was rare for Dramina to respond like this to not just me, but even to Selina as well, so we were both quite troubled as we asked her questions.

Maybe this wasn’t something we should talk about in front of other people, so we hurriedly moved to a secluded corner of the office.

「I am a vampire, so of course I would be sleeping while the sun is up, so it can’t be helped. It would even be considered healthy for a vampire to sleep during the day」

When she finally opened her mouth, she spoke in a truly angry voice as she told us of the biology of vampires.

For us, we already knew that so we were wondering why she was bringing that fact up now, but with this, she was finally opening up on a topic that had always been a closed door up until now.

There was really no need to close that door and not let her talk about this. So Selina and I silently kept our mouths shut, and entrusted Dramina with all the talking.

「I know that you two are being considerate toward me by just letting me sleep throughout the daytime. And I know that me being angry with you two is really just me being willful and selfish.

But, I just can’t help but think. I must say this. Why didn’t you wake me up when you were being granted nobility status!?」

Hm? Oh, so the reason why my cute Dramina is upset is because no one woke her up to see Olivier knight me?

I always thought that it was important for Dramina to get routine rest every day, and it seems Dramina was sulking because she knew of my assumption.

She pouted more and more as she awkwardly put her words together, but I was happy that she was letting down her usual elegant and noble appearance and showing her true self in front of the two of us.

So Selina and I felt both troubled and happy at the same time, while we racked our brains for a way to help cheer Dramina up, and then came up with something clever.

「The Headmaster was awarding us with a title, but it was just a simple formality with no one else present. It definitely wasn’t like a big occasion or anything」

「That’s right. It’s wonderful that we received knighthood, but in the country you’re from, Dramina, the process is probably quite different」

This was Dramina, a vampire of the most noble bloodline, and the one who was once queen of all the vampires on this earth.

Unlike when I received my knighthood, she had probably attended many nobility awarding ceremonies in front of all her subjects, and in big and extravagant venues, while gathering a lot of attention.

「That is unrelated to the current conversation. I am aware I am being an annoying woman right now, but…」

Dramina was pouting much like Fatima always does, and her wording made her sound quite frail. As she said, she was simply letting out her selfishness, I understood that.

「Well, it’s true that letting yourself be spoiled counts as being selfish, but as someone who wishes to spoil you, I think this is a splendid thing. It’s just that it was a little beyond my expectations, so you surprised me a little bit. I mean it, it’s the truth」

When I showed that I wanted to spoil her again, Dramina looked relieved, and then gingerly turned her face toward Selina to seek her agreement.

「Selina, you would be mad too, right? If something big like this happened and you weren’t there by Dran’s side, but I was?」

「U-Umm…」

A sensible adult might have disagreed with Dramina here and offered a different opinion, and such an option would have been wise for Selina to take. But if she was someone who could do that, then she wouldn’t have stayed quiet in the first place.

Selina’s eyes wavered as she spoke her next words, stating that she would likely sulk the same way and give me trouble if her and Dramina’s positions had been reversed.

「I-Instead of Dran’s indirect way of spoiling you, I think there’s a better method than that」

「Eh…」

Oh my, it’s really rare for Dramina to let out a voice like that.

Rather than causing trouble for us, Dramina just wanted to cling to us, so maybe this aimless conversation would improve her mood?

Fumu, if I just wait a bit until Dramina is satisfied, then I’ll probably still get her opinion about which requests to choose eventually.

After that, after Dramina’s mood improved — and she was really very cute, getting embarrassed afterward because of how willful she’d been — I asked for her opinion, and based on the limited time and information we had, we decided on the requests that would be the most beneficial to us, and told the office of our decision.

As I thought, the power of faith is strong. Furthermore, the ones at the top of the list are all from gods who were acquaintances of mine or they know of my existence. Many of the requests were religion-related, but there were also many from merchants engaged in commercial activities in Galois.

As for the requests from nobility, I was now a knight in my own right.

If it’s relations with nobles, there is Olivier, as well as all of my classmates too.

If I reach out to people carelessly, there is a high chance that I might end up shackled by promises, but out of the three sources of requests, the nobles were of the lowest priority. So while I take the exams and classes necessary for skipping a grade, I would have to steadily clean up these requests one by one.

＊

We came home from the capital, and our everyday life returned to normal as we cleaned up all the requests and classes we had piled up.

Selina, Dramina, Christina, Lenia and myself gathered at the meadows in the outskirts of Galois as a group of five. Dramina and Christina were on guard, constantly releasing the clanging sound of their weapons into the surroundings.

Since we had achieved victory at every single match at the Magic Tournament with no losses, the praise we were receiving from the other students was endless, and no matter where we went, we attracted attention. It was a little stifling.

In the midst of all this, we had set up a place away from the prying eyes of others, in the free time between classes, and we were watching a mock battle during our break.

An intense autumn wind mixed with the scent of ripe apples blew past, showing how the vibrant green leaves of the trees had changed into the reds and yellows of fall, the colors before it all rots away in the winter.

The chilly air told us that winter would soon arrive, and under the weakened summer sun, two swordswomen with red eyes focused their eyes on each other, without letting anything escape their awareness, not even our presence.

We were sitting on a large cloth laid out on top of the grass, and several Barrier Golems were placed around us in order to protect us, but also to deploy a barrier that conceals us and hides the gleam of the warriors’ blades from outside eyes.

Dramina was wielding her favorite longsword and its matching divine weapon, Valkyrios, while Christina was dual wielding her magic sword, Elspada, and the Ancient-Celestial Dragon Slaying sword, the Dreadnought.

Christina still had some difficulty with drawing out the full power of Dreadnought, but on the other hand, she had no problem using it even without drawing out any of its power, just as she did during her match in the Magic Tournament.

Without relying on its power, the Dreadnought is simply a sturdy and sharp sword.

In this way, Christina could keep unnecessary thoughts out of mind, and just confront her opponent in this mock battle while going all out with pure skill.

I interfered with the flow of time a bit, and although the sun was still shining outside of the golems’ barrier, the inside shifted to night, which eliminated any negative effects the sunlight had been causing on Dramina.

Incidentally, the reason why I don’t just do this all the time, is because Dramina wants to walk in the same natural time as I do, though it is a frustrating reason.

Now that she could unleash the full power of her abilities as a vampire, Dramina took off the veil she usually wears to shield her from the sun and to suppress her charm, and eagerly exchanged sword slashes with Christina.

Christina, on the other hand, sharpened her senses and used her two magic swords to unleash a series of attacks like a tornado, and it was as if she was venting her anger from her annoyance with the other students’ increasingly dense and feverish gazes during the tournament.

Vampires, one of the strongest races of demi-humans. And Dramina was the strongest existence within that race.

Then there are superhumans, and to ordinary humans, they are a superior race, close to being the strongest lifeforms. On top of being superhuman, Christina also holds the Ancient-Celestial Dragon Killing Factor.

These two people are capable of crossing the sound barrier with just a single light step using only their physical abilities alone, but they also possess such high spiritual power, they could react to lightning and even ignore the laws of physics and magic. A fight between two people capable of such things is something that is almost insane for most humanoid lifeforms on this earth.