Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

I had Ciel ask a leading question, but it seems like the headmistress actually has no knowledge of it, or perhaps I just mistakenly assumed that the anti-Central Elbert is connected with Professor Liens.
I was thinking that the Elberts were secretly smuggling a large number of magic cores in the academy for the professor to use in his research, but was that not the case?

From what I could gather, Professor Liens’ words and actions hinted that he has a means to acquire a large amount of magic cores, but perhaps I was just overthinking it.
Or so I concluded when the headmistress meaningfully added, 「Officially, at least.」

「In other words, the Elberts are connected?」
「You’re practically sure at this point, aren’t you?」
「Hard to say. At the very least, I wasn’t fully confident about it.」
「But you were still confident enough to ask a leading question. Your expression didn’t even change when I tried playing coy, so I thought it better to just spell it out.」

That saves us the trouble, but she’s surprisingly quick to answer.
Was her intent to try playing dumb first and answer honestly if it doesn’t work? Had I been the one in control, I might have gotten fooled.

『I’m impressed you kept a poker face, Ciel.』
『Ain always mentioned it, after all. Besides, I wasn’t that interested in the Elbert family to begin with. As long as they don’t try anything against us or Fii, it’s all fine, and if they do, then we’ll just handle it then and there.』
『True, even if Elbert is the one supplying Professor Liens magic cores, it’s not particularly an issue for us.』

Ciel’s enormous trust in me is nothing new by now, so I consciously ignored that to focus on thinking.
Things would be different if the Elbert family supplied magic cores to Professor Liens with a plan of doing something against Central, but what he wishes to make is a perpetual motion device of sorts. A sorceric tool that doesn’t need magic cores.

Its value is certainly immeasurable, but the most it can do is things like provide quality of life conveniences or extend weapon operation times.
It’ll surely result in a huge fortune, and it could increase military strength enough for this nation to be able to pressure the surrounding nations, but that won’t be enough to touch Central―or rather, us or Mother Fii.

Besides, it’ll be lost the moment it’s created, so Professor Liens’ research results would never reach the Elbert family’s hands. And even if they ask for the professor’s current progress and independently complete the taboo on their own, it’ll simply be destroyed as well.

「I’ll tell you just in case, but the Elbert family no longer has intention of baring fangs against Central.」
「Aren’t they anti-Central?」
「There is enough to gain in the mere act of posturing that they will not yield to Central, you see. Besides, they aren’t only against Central.
Their faction is currently advocating that Ausente Kingdom should be of equal standing to Central. Which isn’t particularly different from how there were before, but still.」
「Are they not equal?」
「It’s not in official treaties or the like, but Central has significant influence over other nations, you know?」

Two large international organizations have their headquarters―it’s not exactly the case for the church, but it is for the Hunter Guild―in Central, so I suppose it’s inevitable that Central holds great influence over other countries.
And regardless of whether Central actually uses it or not, there should be people who find it unfair.

For that reason, the so-called anti-Central faction exists and has people that align with them.
From what the headmistress said, the Elbert family previously hoped to defeat Mother Fii to gain control of Central, or at least to weaken it.
There should be a reason why they changed their advocacy. And I think I have a clue why.

The manor raid attempt, the event where we turned the tables on the people attacking the manor.
For there to be someone with connections to the Elbert family in their ranks would be, well, unsurprising.
While we were the ones who overwhelmed them, I can understand not wanting to fight any more.

It’s exactly why we utterly crushed them, so I guess it’s just things happening as intended. Besides, even if Mother Fii doesn’t really do anything, the same can’t be expected with the other people in Central.
There’s no assurance that there wouldn’t be any people wanting to use the weight of Central’s name to gain an advantage in other nations.

They’ll just be kicked out if they cause trouble for Central, but there are probably some who know how to walk the tightrope so that Mother would ignore their shenanigans.

Regarding the Elberts’ political machinations, they haven’t really done anything against us, so there’s no need to poke our noses in this case and risk unneeded trouble; however, there is the matter of the monster stampede that befell Princess Leshy.
The stampede induced by the Elbert family was undoubtedly aimed at Princess Leshy. However, perhaps defeating a multitude of monsters to amass magic stones was also part of their plan.

In this country, a stampede of that level should be something they can handle, and perhaps the Elbert family did hope to deal with it by themselves.
Even if that’s not the case, perhaps they wanted to be the first responders to defeat a large number of monsters, gaining not only a large number of magic cores but also the public’s favor.
The fools who used the monster-charming drug have surely died in the stampede, and whether they still wanted to fight with Central or not, it was also a viable way to eliminate Princess Leshy.

Even ignoring the large casualties, such a plan still has many merits for the Elberts, but because we happened upon the scene, they even lost the chance to gather magic cores.
Thinking about it that way, we might have partially caused Ausente’s ongoing magic core deficiency, but the main culprit is still the Elbert family, so please direct all complaints to their doorstep. Not that any complaints have reached us, though.

「Well, I don’t really care as long as they don’t lay a hand on us. I was just asking out of curiosity.」
「Really, you… Nevermind, as long as you’re fine with it, I’ve got nothing else to say.」

The headmistress was about to say something, but she swallowed her words, perhaps to avoid provoking Ciel.
It would be a disaster if she misspoke and Ciel suddenly decided, 「Then I guess it’s fine to destroy the Elberts?」 so I’d say that she made the right decision.