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If I was asked which place I feel the most familiar with in the academy, I’d have to say that, outside of our room, it would be Princess Leshimiiya’s room.
We come here regularly, after all, and while I don’t know how she truly feels, the princess always gives a warm welcome, so we never feel like we’re overstaying our welcome. Palra aside, we’ve probably spoken with the princess more often than we have with Belltina.

And since she knows about Cielmer, we’ve also talked about pretty personal stuff with her. For my sensibilities, I feel like I can comfortably consider her a friend at this point.
How do I describe it? We’re close at school, but we don’t really hang out after classes or on the weekends. She’s that kind of classmate, I feel.

And in the most familiar room of Princess Leshimiiya, after being welcomed as always, the servants were made to leave, and we―Ciel, who’s in control, and Princess Leshimiiya―started talking.

「In short, the supplies are now alright?」
「Yes, all thanks to you, Miss Ailneige.」
「It’s a fair trade, so there’s no need to act that way.」
「But―Alright, then I shall oblige.」

Regarding our trade of S-rank magic cores with Princess Leshimiiya, they ended up purchasing 10 cores. It turned into quite a lot of money―I don’t know if it’s the market price, though―but as expected of a great nation’s royalty, they were able to pay with no problem.
It was a price that we could afford if we needed to, but it would definitely burn a hole through our wallet. All I can say is that, once again, we’ll never have any issues with money.

The only times we had to be concerned about money were when we started out and before that, though.

In regard to the public impact, I have heard voices of relief about magic cores starting to circulate in the market once again. Many people probably still need to be more economical compared to last year, but now it won’t be an extreme burden. With this, the problem is now much more manageable.

「By the way, what will the purchased magic cores be used for?」

While Ciel has gotten used to Ailneige’s speech pattern, whenever she’s straightforward like this, I can’t help but go, *’Yup, that’s Ciel.’*
While I’d probably end up being straightforward eventually, I usually dance around the topic for some time first. Still, I don’t intend to say that a certain way of interacting with people is better than the other, so I just kept to myself and watched over their exchange.

The question could be taken as an inquiry about state secrets, but the princess will surely tell us if she can’t answer it, and Ciel isn’t really the type to get upset from not getting answers.

「We’re using it to replace the magic cores powering the palace. I can’t go into the details, but while each of the palace’s important sorceric tools are normally powered by their own magic cores, they can all be sustained by a single, highly powerful one instead.
Only certain individuals are authorized to replace the magic cores used by the palace’s infrastructure, so no one should find the change unusual. They are also bound by contracts that forbid disclosing any information related to the royal family’s sorceric equipment, so there’s no risk of information leaking from them either.」

『It’s like the palace is one big sorceric tool, isn’t it?』
『Now that you mentioned it, you’re right. Still, that probably makes it more convenient to live in.』
『It must have been a challenge to build, though.』

Just how complicated must the palace’s magic circle be? Still, designing a house that uses a single core to start a fire, illuminate a room, heat a bath, and maintain a comfortable room temperature should be possible even for me.
The magic cores used day-in-day-out would need to be from high-ranking monsters, though.

「Also, the magic power within the purchased magic cores is being transferred into lower-ranking cores, which are then circulated in the capital.」
「You can transfer the magic power from a magic core?」
「I heard that it’s only possible to transfer from a higher-ranked magic core to lower-ranked ones, and that the resulting transfer also decreases the total magic power available, but apparently people with certain Jobs can perform this.」

Where does the decreased magic power go? Since it isn’t considered a taboo, then it probably hasn’t vanished or returned to being miasma, though.
Thinking about it normally, maybe it’s treated the same as expended magic power? In that case, wouldn’t it be efficient for this world to just transfer magic power around to expend it? Though I do think that it might be a bit overkill. Still, if need be, to resolve an urgent world-ending threat, then I’ll gladly give all our magic cores away.

In our course of work as a hunter, I only thought of magic cores as a little more than glorified exchange coupons, but there is a surprising amount of use for them. That drug that drives magic power berserk should also be made of it, so I guess I’m just not paying attention.

「Taking the opportunity, I also investigated the flow of magic cores within the capital, and it appears that magic cores of undisclosed origin are being brought into the second academy.」
「Is it really alright to tell me this?」

This should be a national problem or something at that level. At the very least, I don’t think this is a topic to bring up to outsiders like us.
Besides―

『Bringing this up, I wonder what she wants us to do about it?』
『I don’t think we can do anything about it, but what do you think, Ain?』
『I agree with you about that.』

It doesn’t sound like the princess spoke about the mysterious flow of magic cores to have us investigate it. If that was the case, then I’ll have no choice but to lower my opinion of her.
If she wanted us to do something for her, she should just tell us what to do and how we’ll be compensated; no need to be so roundabout. In the first place, this isn’t something to entrust an outsider to handle.

「Honestly, I really shouldn’t share this matter, but since the Elbert family appears to have involvement, I decided to inform you about it.」
「Thank you very much.」

With the anti-Central faction involved, I now understand her wanting to inform us. After all, it’ll be too late if we only learn this after something already happened.
If we’re not expected to do anything in exchange for this information, then I’m honestly grateful for it. As I was pondering, the princess then started to say, 「By the way…」 in a somewhat awkward tone.

「Miss Ailneige, are you older than me?」
「That’s right… Is there any issue with that?」
「No.. I mean…」

While Princess Leshimiiya sheepishly scanned Ciel up and down, Ciel tilted her head in confusion.

『What’s going on?』
『Setting aside where she learned of our age, she must be wondering why we’re so short.』
『Are we really that short?』
『We are the shortest in our class, so yes, we are relatively short. Still, there’s nothing we can do about it.』