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「Come to think of it, Mother Fii, how much do you know about my previous life?」
「Ainsel, I know almost nothing about your previous life; all I know is that you passed young.
However, I do know a bit about your previous world. It’s a world with no monsters, where humans are the top of the hierarchy. There are countries that are relatively peaceful and countries where many people don’t know if they can survive until the next day. War is rampant, but people can live their whole lives not experiencing it at all. It’s such a world.」
「The country I lived in was on the peaceful side.」
「Yes, that certainly seems to be the case.」

I don’t know what was in Mother’s mind when she nodded in agreement. However, from her words, Mother is probably more informed than I am about the world affairs of my previous world.

「On that note, I know various different worlds as well.」
「Do you mean the worlds that are connected to this world?」
「That’s precisely the case. There is even a world that has existed longer than your previous world yet has not developed advanced technologies, and there is also a world where humans are at the top of the food chain despite there being monster-like creatures in their world.」
「Both of them sound like trouble.」

The negative energies from all these worlds gather and become monsters in this world, so this world is probably the most troublesome of all, though.
Someone as insignificant to the world as I am being in the position to be privy to the secret inner workings of the world as a part of small talk is quite a mysterious feeling.

「The topic has gotten a bit too grand; let’s talk about something more intimate.
Ain, how was your academy life?」
「Being able to see different sides of Ciel was enjoyable, but equally lonely.」
「In the end, that’s all you two think of.」
「Well, of course.」

To Mother’s exasperated smile, I responded with my chest puffed.
I’m well aware that I’m not much different from Ciel, but Ciel is my number 1, so this had to be mentioned.
The center of my academy life is Ciel. Now with that out of the way, I’ll start answering properly.

「Let’s see. A lot of things happened, more than I expected.」
「From what I heard, that certainly is the case.」
「Being acquainted with the princess was unplanned, of course, and there are troublesome students as well, so there’s no telling when we’d get roped into trouble.
Still, we’ve partly revealed Ailneige’s true identity to key individuals, so even if anything happens, we should be alright.」

We have previously done their nation a favor by selling them S-rank magic cores, and they probably wouldn’t pay us with blood for that.
However, one certain prince being part of the royal family is a concern.

「I’ve heard that there are many unique talents among the Second Academy enrollees this year. There are even those that wouldn’t normally enroll in the Second Academy, as though it was planned beforehand.」
「You didn’t intentionally bring up the topic of enrollment with this in mind, did you?」
「You two are likely the most unique among them, you know?」

Mother Fii said in a teasing manner, but I can’t deny that statement. The daughter of Central’s head, Mistress Fiiyanamia; if our identity were made public, it’d be the talk of the town, possibly more than the news of Princess Leshy joining the academy during enrollment.
Rather, rumors of Princess Leshy enrolling probably started circulating even before the enrollment period, so it’ll definitely be worse. After all, she enrolled in the second academy to signify that she has no desire for the throne.

「We didn’t really make full effort to completely hide our abilities, so I can’t deny that we didn’t attract much attention thanks to their presence.」
「If that happened, you two might have returned home much earlier.」
「Depending on the situation, that frankly could’ve happened.」

Ciel already attracts people with her looks alone, and some noble dependents could have gotten offended for some reason and hold a grudge against us. We’ve already had people barking up on us during our hunter work, but if there were people like that repeatedly going at us in the academy, we’d get sick of it.

And if that happens, we might either just run away or squash them with our full power, resulting in our identity being exposed, eventually leading to us running away from the country.
While there are many unique individuals in our classroom, the center of it all isn’t us, but our Mr. Hero. We did start a minor dispute, but I hope we’ll stay as an unknown NPC in his life.

「Incidentally, Ciel revealed her identity, but has anyone been told about you, Ainsel?」
「We told Munyechka. Or rather, she noticed me.」
「With her magic, she does seem capable of that.」
「Also, we sort of told Professor Liens as well. Though Ciel only revealed that there’s someone else inside her.」
「The taboo researcher…」

As I intentionally brought up Professor Liens’ name, Mother Fii’s gaze instantly turned sharp. I ignore that and continue talking.

「And so that happened. Ciel didn’t seem to have any intention of revealing my name, though.」
「I suppose that’s one line she’s not crossing.」
「Their first meeting wasn’t that good, after all. Depending on Professor Liens’ thought process, things might have not ended as peacefully as it did.」

Calling it *’peaceful’* is quite a stretch, but at worst, Ciel could’ve ended him.

「And yet they’ve now grown relatively close.
―The death of a close acquaintance. You want Ciel to experience this, don’t you?」
「… Are you against it?」

As we entered the main issue, I carefully responded to Mother Fii’s question.
Mother immediately shook her head, responding with, 「No.」 She then added to her answer.

「When interacting with people, it’s an inevitable experience. Particularly for us, we’ll experience it more than the average person. I don’t really get very affected by it, but it might not be the same for you two.」

Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, Mother then added, 「Still, isn’t it too early for Ciel?」

「I’m also conflicted about that, but we likely wouldn’t find another situation as perfect as this. Besides, I do genuinely wish that he would stop the taboo research.」
「Seems like he’s impossible to persuade.」
「With his personality, if he were possible to persuade, he would never have started his research to begin with.」

After all, he’s still able to continue researching even though he knows that committing the taboo would kill him; persuading someone who is prepared to die is too much for me.
We could probably stop the professor by force, but if we ever do that, there’s no telling what he’ll do. He can probably kill himself without even batting an eye.

「Still, if I have to be honest, I’m not really that worried about Ciel. The one I’m more concerned about is you, Ainsel.」

Hearing her emphasize my name, I was startled.
I was previously thinking how Ciel is probably more mature than I am, but I didn’t expect to be the one treated more like a child.
Considering the happenings in the past, it’s understandable to be more worried about me, though.

「In your previous life, how intimate were you with human death?」
「I hear about it every day as information. I have never been witness to the death of a loved one.」

If I really have to say it, I have died myself, so I think I’m pretty intimate with human death, but that’s not really her point.
In my previous life, my classmates or relatives could’ve died from accidents or illnesses, but that personally didn’t happen to me. The first time I’ve actually witnessed a dead human body was after I arrived here, and Ciel was already more mature and put together than I was back then, so Mother Fii’s concern is extremely justified.

「However, I think it should be fine. At the very least, I no longer get shaken by the death of strangers, after all.」
「As expected, Ciel is the stronger one in that regard.」
「It’s quite difficult to look cool in front of Ciel, you know?」
「―… I suppose that might be the case.」

Mother Fii said it with a meaningful smile, so I don’t think she means what she said at face value.
Trying to decipher the meaning probably won’t do me any good, so regardless of whether this will give her peace of mind or not, I responded with these words.

「As long as Ciel is by my side, I’ll be alright.」
「―… I suppose that might be the case.」

It’s the exact same words, but from Mother’s expression, I can assume that she means them in a completely different way.