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「Headmistress, please open the door.」

In front of the door with the sign “Office of the Academy Head,” Semiette spoke with a superficially polite tone. Semiette is technically part of the teaching staff, so wouldn’t it be prudent to be a bit more careful with her attitude?
Maybe she’s projecting a bit of her “master” persona because there aren’t any people around at present. After all, Semiette should also know that there’s only one presence inside the office.

The individual within lethargically approached the door and begrudgingly opened it.

「What’s it this time, master? Don’t you usually prefer to be left alone all the time?」
「Today I’ve brought someone who wanted to meet you, so you’d best sharpen your act.」
「Wanted to meet me?」

The robed lady beyond the door looked around left and right before finally looking down and noticing me.
Seeing her face, considering her position as a headmistress, she looks younger than I’d expected. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s in her twenties, but I also wouldn’t disagree even if she turned out to be in her forties.
Since her ears aren’t pointed, she probably isn’t an elf. In that case, it might be easy to know what kind of hunter she was with some investigation. Actually, if we ask Grandmaster Rhavelt, he might probably tell us the people’s general perception of the headmaster during his time.

「Pleased to meet you, I am—」
「I know, Ailneige, correct?」
「You know of me?」
「I am the academy headmistress, after all—is what I’d like to say, but it isn’t as if I actually remember the names of all the students.」
「Well, I suppose so.」

The headmistress already recognizes Ailneige, so I assume that she probably had at least researched the students she’s interested in. She did previous look at us and seems to know enough about us that my half-hearted response didn’t elicit a displeased reaction.
Then, as if to confirm something, she turned to Semiette.

「Master, why are you with her?—Just so you know, I am aware that she’s the sole student of the Puppet Sorcery course. But I don’t believe that this is enough for you to favor someone. Well, it’s easy to see that this isn’t the only factor.」
「She’s an acquaintance’s kin.」
「Why do you always act like this whenever you’re Semiette?」
「It’s because you’re the headmistress and I’m but a teacher. Doesn’t Vyfia show you the same respect as well?」
「It’s questionable if such a surface-level act can even be considered a show of respect, but oh well. Am I correct to assume that she’s a relative of Master Munyechka’s friend?」
「That’s exactly the case. As such, I’ll be taking my leave. Please take care of her for me.」
「What did you even come here for… master…」
「I came here to show that I’m working. As a teacher of this academy, I brought a student wanting to meet our dear headmistress.」

Semiette said with an indifferent tone, to which the headmistress responded with an exhausted sigh. It appears that trouble comes with her as a master. In our case, the most “master-like” person we know is probably Carol. It’s a bit hard to say if she was troublesome or not. But she isn’t really our sorcery master to begin with, so I guess there’s no use comparing.
Rather, from our relationship with Perla, we’re more of a master-ish character, but I wonder if she saw us that way. I hope she’s doing well these days.

As I was lost in my thoughts, it seemed like Semiette and the headmaster had finished their conversation, as Semiette announced, 「Now, I’ll be taking my leave,」 and left.
While rubbing her temple, the headmistress turned to me.

「Sorry to make you wait. I’m told that you need something of me, but could you first come inside?」
「Understood.」

I suppose it’s not good to hold a conversation in front of the office. With the headmistress being famous, a first-year having a one-on-one conversation with her would be conspicuous, so I gladly complied.
The headmistress’ office doesn’t look that much different from the principal’s offices I know. It’s not particularly unusual, nor does it seem to have any strange equipment or hidden rooms.

「Welcome to my office. This is the first time I’ve had a student within the first days of the academy opening, but make yourself comfortable.」
「Thank you very much. It might be weird for me to ask this myself, but do students actually come to the headmistress’ office frequently?」
「Despite appearances, I am famous, so there is a subset of people who visit out of curiosity, but excluding special events, it’s not very common. It’s generally only students chosen to represent in inter-academy competitions, students with outstanding achievements, or those with particularly excellent grades.」
「Inter-academy competitions?」
「It’s rare to find students who enrolled without knowing this, but to put it simply, we hold contests with the first academy for students to test their abilities. I believe it should be easier to understand this way.」
「I see.」
「You don’t sound interested.」
「Yes, I’m not.」

The first academy is where *that* prince is, and we don’t want to stand out. In that sense, it’s not that I’m not interested, but I would never want to participate in that.
Even if good performance is recognized and may result in a secure employment as a knight or court sorcerer, I’d rather not. Honestly, those aren’t really a plus for us at all. It’s unlikely to result in us getting better treatment, and any attempt to take us in would risk becoming an international problem.

The headmistress responded to my immediate reply with silent musing but then she spoke with a serious expression.

「I heard that you wanted to see me, but would you mind telling me about yourself first?」
「Don’t you already know enough about me?」
「Your name is Ailneige; you’re an E-rank hunter who is usually in a two-man party. You are not a local and most probably hail from Central. Considering your extraordinary finances, you are either from a major merchant family or a noble, but from your magic power assessment, you are more likely to be of noble blood. Your fighting style is mainly defensive through the use of barriers, which you proactively leverage to complete herb gathering requests.
This is the all information I have on hand, but it is possible that these were intentionally leaked. After all, your capabilities are surely well beyond that; I don’t even know if I can win against you.」

『So apparently she doesn’t know, but is that true?』
『From what I can sense, we wouldn’t lose, so I suppose we can win against her. To begin with, if she wasn’t hiding her strength when she was active and she didn’t reach S-rank, then we can probably win.』