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It has been two days. The day of the excursion had finally come. The destination was a small territory, but a rural town of the frontier nonetheless. It was not a distance that kids could cover on a day trip. But this was a slightly extravagant trip that utilized the teleportation circle of the Adventurer’s Guild.

Since the magic circle needed a huge amount of magic power to activate, it required many magicians, as such the price was befittingly high. However, the magic academy had a magic power tank by the name of Maxwell.

If it was him, he could activate the magic circle all by himself. Moreover, he knew its workings too. Were the Guild to refuse the request, he could make the circle himself, so it was in their best interest to just accept the money.

And as such, they responded to this request in an extremely favorable way.

“Okay, everyone, please line up here!”

The staff member guided us, kids, with a polite tone. They even gave us candy in commemoration. But that was only natural, as the teleportation needed about a bag of candy’s worth of silver coins, yet Maxwell easily handed it over, so they were all smiles.

Most of us were from noble families, but kids were still kids. It was a rare excursion, so many among us could not contain their excitement.

The academy did similar excursions once a year, and took kids on trips under the pretext of widening their knowledge. This was already the fourth time for me too.

I felt a bit bad for the staff member who was stuck with humoring the excited kids, but it was a good opportunity for us to blow off some steam.

“Or that’s how it’s supposed to be, so what are you doing here?”
“Oh, you’re no fun. I’m just worried about you and decided to keep you company.”
“I don’t need it. Shoo.”

A single part-time teacher was following me, a single student, around. It goes without saying but, it was Elliot. A fine man in his twenties shouldn’t be following a kid around, good grief.

“Well, I can’t honestly say I don’t have any ulterior motives, though.”
“It’s about my parents, isn’t it? I know already.”
“Marrying you would, in turn, strengthen my connections with your parents. It’s a natural outcome. You could say it’s my lifeline.”

Elliot was a survivor of a ruined royalty. The neighboring countries decided to back him up to secure their safety and formed the United Three Nations. Us, the Six Heroes, had a role to play in executing his plan.

In other words, Elliot’s royal dignity authority was inferior to other nations. In the worst case, the subjects of other nations would look down on him as a puppet. It was thanks to us that such a development was narrowly avoided.

I could understand his desire to pull me in and secure my parents’ cooperation.

“I praise your honesty, but people normally wouldn’t mention the power struggle, you know?”
“I felt like it would be more effective if I revealed everything to you.”
“Was it that who told you to?”
“Ah, it wasn’t that.”

Towards the direction I was looking, there was Priscilla who was on guard duty but pretending to be a teacher. She wore the teachers’ suit, but given how young she was, it didn’t really fit her… And Cortina was next to her.

Because this temporary-teacher (Royalty) was next to me, even Letina who was usually beside me was keeping her distance. Even Matisse was anxious about this mysterious (LOL) teacher and didn’t come close.

“My friends aren’t approaching me, so can you go away?”
“Oh man, I’m looking forward to this trip too.”
“Are you even listening?”
“Look, I’ve rarely left the castle, you know?”
“Cortina, get this weirdo away from me!”

I finally lost my patience and called for reinforcements. Hearing that, Cortina who was guiding the students rushed towards me. She didn’t particularly hate Elliot, but she was still sensitive towards the “bugs” that tried to approach me.

“Okay, the weirdo there, go back to work!”
“Ahh, Lady Cortina, don’t be so unreasonable!”

Cortina grabbed him by the nape and dragged him away. Considering that she took care of him since childhood, he couldn’t go against her regardless of his status as the king. By all rights, it should’ve been the same towards me.

Well, just wait. I’ll make you fall head over heels by my charms one of these days. Wait, I mean my transformed self, not the current one.

Either way, once Elliot, who acted like a typical nobleman, left my side, Matisse and Letina finally came close. Honestly, I’d much rather be surrounded by cute girls, so this was a big help.

“Mr. Elliot sure is a weirdo, isn’t he?”
“I-Indeed…”

Matisse didn’t know that he was the king of Union. But Letina who did know wasn’t sure how to respond to it. She may be young, but she still understood that his identity wasn’t to be disclosed.

“Ah, Mr. Elliot went away, huh?”
“Michelle, where were you all this time?”
“Over there.”

The Adventurer Academy also took part in this time’s excursion. As such, Michelle had to be here as well. However, she did not show up while Elliot was with me.

“I’m also a bit bad at dealing with that teacher. Sorry, okay?”

There was no one who’d get mad at her when she was apologizing so cutely with her hands together. Elliot had an appearance that any girl of marriageable age would instantly fall for, but he was quite badly received among kids.

As expected, his conduct built on appearances gave them an uncomfortable feeling. Kids were sensitive when it came to such things.