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「Well, can we exchange answers now?」
『About Ms. Munyechka?』
「Yeah. First of all, Munyechka lives on this floor, right?」
『I forgot to ask, but I believe that should be the case. We could ask her later just to confirm.』
「If Ain says so, then it should be the case.」

Returning to our dorm room, I chatted with Ciel.
Yeah, I should try asking during class proper. At worst, Ciel might just put it off until we forget about it. Even if I try asking Munyechka now, she doesn’t seem to be home yet; most of all, chatting with Ciel is more important, so we can postpone it for later.

「Let’s continue. Munyechka is an S-rank hunter and Fii’s acquaintance, right?」
『That’s right. Is there anything else you’re curious about?』
「There’s a lot more! But let me think first.」
『Sure, of course.』
「Munyechka uses Puppet Magic, right?」
『Most likely.』
「Was Munyechka herself inside that room?」
『I think so, but I can’t answer for sure.』

Whether our suspicions are right or wrong can only be confirmed by asking her in person.
But I believe that Ciel is correct. After all, Munyechka and I are quite similar.

「But there weren’t any humans back then, were there?」
『There weren’t, yes.』

Which is why the beautiful puppet girl should be Munyechka.
Her puppet was so human-like that even Ciel couldn’t respond with certainty, and if we weren’t so similar, I might not have noticed it myself.

「So Munyechka doesn’t have a body? Like Ain right now?」
『I believe so. However, in her case, it’s possible that she ended up that way by choice.』
「In short, magic, right? In exchange for being able to use Puppet Magic, she lost her body.」
『If we assume that to be true, it answers a lot of questions about her.』
「Iena and Semiette stopped moving back then; was it perhaps because they were using a part of her soul?」
『I think that should be the case. Their magic power felt the same, after all.』

Even if their individual magic power can’t compare to that of their creator, Munyechka, her mastery alone could make each puppet roughly equivalent to an A-rank in terms of strength.
And that’s only from the five I sensed today. She could probably increase it to around ten, and for every puppet you defeat, the separated soul would likely return to Munyechka, and that will, in effect, result in her powering up.
It would be like when you finally defeat the surrounding mobs and then are forced to fight a fully buffed final boss. But since they’re actually strong, you can’t just ignore them and go straight to the boss either.

Even if that isn’t the case, in my opinion, the puppets’ ability to share information between themselves already makes it a considerably useful magic.
Simply having ten puppets infiltrate different nations could provide you with a potent information network for an individual.

「In that case, perhaps it’ll be difficult if I don’t have Munyechka’s help.」
『In making my body?』
「Yeah, after all, I can’t use magic. And even if I could, if it isn’t Puppet Magic, I might not be able to create a puppet of that level anyway.」
『That may be true, but I don’t think she’ll lend a hand so easily.』
「In that case, I wouldn’t mind having a small Ain either.」

Well, with only Puppet Sorcery, I suppose the result will only be a doll of the typical size.
One that Ciel can hold in her arms, if not maybe smaller.
Hmm, well, as long as she’s happy, it’s fine. In the first place, we don’t even know if this will go well.

『Lectures will start from tomorrow on, so let’s sleep early today, alright?』
「That’s true.」

After chatting for a bit more, I urged Ciel to sleep.
The past me would’ve been too anxious to sleep soundly… or so I believe. Meanwhile, just when it seems that Ciel is silently listening to my lullaby, her light snores can be heard even before my first song ends.

◇◇◇

The sun rises, and our new class-filled days begin. Before anything else, we went to our Class A homeroom as required, but there seemed to be no particular announcements, and we were only checked for attendance today.
This morning, our first class is the basic-level General Sorcery, and after that is a vacant period. From noon, we’ll have basic-level Hunter’s Sorcery, basic-level Monsterology, and then basic-level Combat Training.
Since we’ll be free after General Sorcery until the end of lunch, I suggested Ciel that we go around the academy in the meantime.

I want to lightly search around for the individual connected to the taboo, but I honestly don’t even know where to begin.
Regarding this, it might be best to try asking Princess Leshimiiya for clues. Still, if I just bluntly ask her, 「Do you know of anyone who might just commit a taboo?」 it’ll probably bore a hole in the pit of her stomach. Well, I’ll try when given the opportunity.
After all, the princess did say that she wants to be a bit closer to Ailneige.

Today, I’ll be attending the sorcery courses, while Ciel will be attending Monsterology and Combat Training. Who attends which doesn’t really matter much, but since only Ciel will attend Combat Training—because I apparently don’t need any combat capability—this was our arrangement.
For our free time, apparently, I should generally be in control.

At our lecture rooms, it seems that we choose our own seats, and in the general sorcery classroom, most of the students sat at the front. In my memories, the front of the classroom tends to be empty, while the back is crowded with people; I guess it’s a difference of enthusiasm. Most of the students here are either commoners or low-status nobles who couldn’t learn at home, so their lives probably also depend on this.
And since I’m not really as gung-ho as them, I’ll sit silently at the back. I’m mainly curious about what we will be taught; I’m not here to study seriously, after all.

As the students began to gather and the seats were around 80% filled, someone spoke to me, 「May I sit next to you?」
Since I had no reason to refuse, I was about to listlessly answer, 「Of course,」 when I realized that this voice sounded familiar, so I turned to the speaker.

「Of course, but I didn’t expect you to take this course, princess.」
「Thank you very much. From my perspective, Miss Ailneige, it’s a surprise to see you taking this course as well.」
「While I declare myself an E-rank hunter, my sorcery is self-taught, so I’m actually uneducated with the fundamentals.」
「And yet you can use sorcery of this level…」

It sounds like Princess Leshimiiya understands that I’m not lying, since she reacted with surprise.
However, there are also people trying to overhear our conversation, so please don’t hype up Ailneige too much.

「While my barrier is certainly impressionable, I don’t believe it warrants surprise.」
「No need to underrate yourself so much…」
「So, what brought you to this course, princess?」
「It is part of my duty to observe the courses offered in the academy, so I’ve enrolled in a wide variety of courses.」
「I see… Please take care of yourself.」

And that ends this update! We’re back again with our dear princess Leshy!

The girls’ post-discussions are always so adorable for me somehow, especially when Ciel is actively interested in what they’re talking about. And once again, Munyechka having basically puppet clones is really overpowered. Having clones by themselves is already broken enough, and it’s generally part of an OP protagonist’s powerset that gets underplayed with straightforward/not smart applications. The fact that she would most likely power up when you defeat her satellite dolls like some endgame boss because of how she animates them with parts of her soul really gives off demon king vibes, even. Though it is a common clone technique side effect thing, it’s not really explored that well in many stories, I think. Or I’m just lacking in culture (feel free to recommend a good clone/puppeteer webnovel).

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!

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