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「Then it’s concluded. The handover to the Imperial Guard Order will take place as soon as tomorrow. Is that clear, Lady Miliera?」
「Y-, yes…… That is fair.」
「And you too, Silva? We’ll depend on you.」
「I understand, brother…」

Silva also nodded, trying to put up with the conclusion. Lastly, Redas turned his gaze towards Inglis.

「Your name is Inglis, isn’t it? You’re a Squire student, huh……?」
「Yes. I’m a first-year Squire department student, Inglis Eux.」
「Hm, I see……However, your speech, your nerves of steel, and your bright intelligence are quite impressive for someone your age. You saved me, since Lady Miliera was so lost in her fury she couldn’t be reasoned with. I was just about to be made a villain here.」
「I mean…… I couldn’t help it, could I?」

Said Principal Miliera, a little bit sulky. She was also bearing a huge responsibility to be put in charge of Ripple’s escorting mission. It was understandable why she would want to complain in regards to the Royal Decree.

「Much obliged.」

Inglis politely bowed to Redas once.

「I’ll keep you in mind. Once you graduate from the Academy, come to the Imperial Guard Order. Runes and brains are different strengths altogether, treating Squires like you badly is already an old-school way of thinking. We will prepare a way for you to make full use of your ability as a strategist.」
「No, I would prefer to be assigned to the front line, so I’m afraid I have to decline.」

Inglis refused it in a heartbeat. She was not going to do any brain work as a staff officer, a tactician, or anything in that line. She had gone through tons and tons of deskwork in a position higher than that, as a single King. She was sick of it.

The reason why Inglis cut into the current conversation was because she wanted to lead things to go her way. Betterment of the world, political tug of war, career advancement, fame, or anything else; Inglis couldn’t care less.
Although, she did think that Rafinha would be angry with her if she spoke too much of her ideology.

In any case, please just don’t try to get me involved in any of your funny business.

「Nu……!? W-, well, that’s fair enough——」

Redas’ face cramped as he was taken aback. He must have thought Inglis would be happy with the offer. Perhaps she found it funny, Rafinha giggled seeing him like so.

「Then, I’ll take my leave. I’ll send a contact person later.」

After saying that, Redas left the principal’s office.

「Fufufu. he must have fatally misunderstood Inglis!」
「You’re right. After we graduate, don’t go to the Imperial Guard Order, okay, Rani?」

As Inglis would stick to Rafinha, she sincerely hoped Rafinha wouldn’t apply for the Imperial Guard Order.

「If you want me to promise that, you’ll have to give me an explanation that will satisfy me, okay? What are you planning?」
「For the time being, I avoided having Miss Ripple taken away right this moment. Since it is a direct order of the King, no matter how much we hate it, if we seriously try to go against the order, we will become rebels. Well, if Rani is okay with it, then I’m fine too…」
「I-it’s not fine, okay!? Can you please not think of something so stupid!?」
「Y-, you sure say something amazing with a straight face, Inglis……」

The principal and Ripple were startled by that comment.

「A-As if I’ll go that extreme……! If we did that, that means we’ll be enemies with big brother Rafa, right? And I don’t know what would happen to Ymir too!」
「Yeah, you’re right. That’s why, rather than going down that path, we should pretend to go along with their scheme and open some extra time… During which we will devise a good plan.」
「I see……! Okay, good idea, good idea!」

With a really serious face, Rafinha nodded. It was obvious that she was desperate to think up a good plan. Inglis thought that was good for her.

「Principal, I’m sorry I went out of line.」
「No, that was fine. After all, I could see what you did there, Miss Inglis…Not to mention, I was taken by emotion and lost all of my composure. Had I corner Mister Redas too much back then, he might not even have given us this precious open time……」
「But Principal, what do we do from here? We don’t have much time, we need to act quickly……!」

Both in Silva’s tone and expression, impatience was pronounced. He looked quite desperate himself. Silva had the image of calmness attached to him, but seeing how agitated he was right now was quite unexpected. Was there another factor that added to his circumstance? Was he rebelling against his brother?

「There… there is one…just one plan that comes to my mind right now, but……」
「What is it? Principal!?」
「We will have Miss Ripple suck Mana from Mister Silva and me who possess Special Grade Runes……That Mana then will summon Magic Stone Beasts and…until they stop being summoned, we will keep defeating them. Miss Ripple only summons Beastman Magic Stone Beasts, and the number of that kind of Magic Stone Beasts is finite. If we defeat all of them, we can substantially make the anomaly lose all of its meaning…」

Principal Miliera spoke of an idea Inglis was all too familiar with.

「Wh……!? Th-, that’s truly a brute way to approach……!」
「Y-, yes, it is. The plan is to have every single Magic Stone Beasts defeated within the limited postponement time.……」

She spoke of it in a very roundabout way. It was apparent that she herself actually didn’t want to resort to it.

「Miliera……!? Isn’t that what Inglis proposed!?」
「Y-, yes——」

Exactly. If they wanted to solve everything in a short period of time, they had no option but to resort to a coercive method. Not to mention, this method didn’t violate the Royal Decree in any stretch. They could simply say that another anomaly took place within Ripple’s body during the handover.

「I-Inglis…… Don’t tell me——」
「Could it be……」
「Glis, you said what you said to Mr. Redas because you aimed for that!?」

Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte swarmed Inglis with their gazes.

「……Everyone, let’s do our best!」

Inglis dodged the question with a wide, beautiful smile.