57 Chapter 57: Academy Affair

"Long time no see," I greeted Alicia with a wave of my hand. However, she merely glared at me coldly and folded her arms.

"Hey, why are you here?"

"Uh, one of the staff requested to meet me."

"Hmph." Alicia snorted in disbelief. "Who?"

"Nagano Sensei." Not wanting to be pressed for details, I turned the tables on her with questions of my own. "And you? Why are you here?"

"Of course I'll be here. I'm a student. Obviously."

If her voice had a temperature, it would have plunged below zero by now. I didn't rise to the bait, however.

"I see…"

"So…which noble family do you come from?"

I was a vampire lord in Morten, and a major in the demon army. A demon noble, to be honest, but I doubted telling Alicia the truth would help my cause. So I mumbled something vague.

"The Tanaka clan has just recently been established…elevated to the rank of nobility as recognition by his majesty for my services in the war."

"A newly elevated noble?" Alicia sniffed in disdain. "Hmm…"

I studied her even as she scrutinized me icily. If Alicia was here, then where did she find the time to go on mercenary jobs?

"Aren't you supposed to be a mercenary as well?"

"I'm different from you!"

Offended, Alicia placed both her hands on her hips and glared at me.

"Even though I am a mercenary, I also happen to be a noble! Anyway, a lot happened and now I'm back here."

"I see."

That explained everything. The last time we went on a mercenary job together, she brought along a luxurious, expensive carriage. It made sense now that I knew she was a noble…that she was from a rich family. Normal people simply couldn't afford traveling around in such an expensive carriage. It also explained why they were all right with allowing me to receive the full reward.

Well, honestly this had nothing to do with me so I decided to focus on the problem at hand. This was a stroke of good luck.

"Ah, speaking of which, there is something I need to ask you."

"Hmmm? What is it?"

Alicia was glaring at me suspiciously, but I refused to flinch under her hostile glare. The other students were sending us strange glances, but I ignored them.

"You're still a mercenary, right?"

"Huh? Yes, but what of it?"

"I need your help." I smiled as I pushed my glasses up my nose, my lenses sparkling. "I need assistance to slay a dragon."

"A dragon…?" Alicia had lost all hostility and was looking all puzzled. "What's that about? Ah! Don't tell me…it's a mission to save her highness from the dragon?"

"That's right." I nodded eagerly. "Right now, Hero-sama is trying to assemble a party, and she tasked me for recruitment. That's why, if you and your boyfriend…"

Alicia suddenly screamed, all flustered. Her cheeks turned red and she waved her hands around desperately.

"Hmm…"

Thanks to reading Tanaka the Wizard, I knew what was happening. So I mischievously repeated.

"You and your boyfriend…"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAWAAAAAAAAAAAHWAAAAAAAAAAH!"

I recoiled and raised both hands in surrender, cold perspiration dripping off my face as Alicia shrieked in a deafening volume. Bloody hell, girl, were you trying to burst my eardrums or something? Even my Redwood jacket couldn't protect me from such a vicious sonic assault!

"Oh shut the fuck up…" I rolled my eyes and sighed, clutching my ears.

Alicia was breathing heavily, her face completely flushed crimson. Not wanting to listen to another of her screeching, I pretended to resign.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. It's a secret."

Unfortunately, Alicia had kicked up such a commotion that she was drawing stares from all the other magic students.

"Isn't that Alicia Clarence-sama and…that boy, he doesn't look like he's from our school?"

"He's not wearing our uniform."

"Oh my, is there a problem? Is that guy bothering you?"

"She's the one bothering me!" I yelled indignantly at the other students. Alicia gritted her teeth, suddenly realizing that she was the center of attention. Then she grabbed my hand all of a sudden and yanked with all her might.

"Whoa!"

I managed to dig my feet in and use my superior physical strength to prevent her from pulling me away, but she didn't seem satisfied. Using both hands, she tightened her grip on my wrist, leaving angry red marks on my skin.

"Hey you…come with me for a bit…"

"I don't wanna."

"Don't argue!" Alicia snapped as she dragged me away from the courtyard. This time I just went with the flow. "Just come with me!"

The next thing I knew, I was suddenly back inside the academy, under extravagant archways and marble pillars.

"Um…"

I glanced up at the ridiculously expensive and luxurious interior of the academy, thinking about how it was such a waste of money.

BANG!

I wasn't given much time to entertain such idle thoughts, for Alicia was executing a kabedon on me. Eh? Weren't our roles reversed? Shouldn't it be the guy banging his hand against the wall while cornering the girl?

Not to mention Alicia was using both hands, trapping me between them and the pillar so as to prevent me from escaping.

Naïve. If I really wanted to escape, you wouldn't be left unscathed. But I was aware that I couldn't solve everything with brute force so I just played along for now.

"Don't mention Alan!" Alicia pleaded desperately, perspiration running down her pale face. "Especially not at school!"

"So can I mention him somewhere else?"

I just enjoyed seeing Alicia squirm. She glared at me, and I shook my head.

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"Speaking of your handsome boyfriend, I have a job for him. We're a bit shorthanded, so I want to recruit him. He's much better to work with than you are."

"I told you not to mention him!" Alicia shouted as she closed her arms on either side of me, almost as if she wanted to crush me.

"Then how the hell am I supposed to recruit him?"

"Who cares about that right now?!"

Lowering her hands, Alicia backed away weakly, her face red and anxious. I could see that her arms were trembling.

"If…if our relationship is exposed, then…then, Alan will…"

That didn't sound good.

"…will what, exactly? I mean, I kind of get that it's a secret affair and all…"

I didn't understand this whole noble business, social standings and statuses or hierarchies. A student from modern Japan couldn't possibly follow some medieval or Victorian or industrial revolution era culture and social norms.

"That's right!" Alicia snapped, and then she timidly lowered her head. "Something wrong with that?"

"No…"

I sighed and shook my head. Honestly, who Alicia had a secret romantic affair with was absolutely none of my business.

"More importantly…"

"Keeping our affair a secret is more important!"

Fair enough. I was doing this on purpose to tease you. Truth be told, I already suspected that the moment she started panicking and screaming about. That was why I went along with the whole kabedon and drama thing.

It was just so fun to tease her.

"So who is he?" I asked curiously. Alicia was a noble, and Alan looked like he was of quite high pedigree as well, so why did they have to keep their relationship a secret?

"He's a knight who belongs to the order of knights. He went on a mercenary mission with me."

"I see."

No, actually I don't see. A knight who belongs to the order of knights? What the fuck did that mean? Tautology, much? Wouldn't it be more useful to tell me which order he was from? Order of Knights of Blood? Order of Rose? Order of the Martyred Sisters?

"Wait, so why do you have to keep a noble's relationship with a knight a secret?"

"Are you dumb? If they find out that a knight is having a secret affair with a noble, he will be kicked out of the order and stripped of his rank, title and achievements!"

"Uh, yeah…I'm asking why? Isn't a knight basically a noble?"

"No, not necessarily! Alan is still a relatively new knight. He needs to rise higher into the ranks before my father approves of our relationship!"

"Right." I didn't care for all these politics but I wasn't here to start a social revolution or whatever. Instead, I focused on the issue at hand. There was still another thing that puzzled me. "What about Mistress-san?"

"Mistress?"

"Erm…no…I meant Sophia or whatever she was called."

While I frantically tried to explain, Alicia stepped back and nodded.

"Ah, you mean Sophia. She belongs to the order of magical knights. Despite her age, she's skilled enough to be the vice-captain of her division. Even I got saved by her a few times…"

Placing her hands on her hips, Alicia spoke smugly and chuckled. I was at a loss for words. That wasn't something you should be proud of…

Whatever, this is stupid…

I could roughly build a picture in my mind now and guess what was going on, especially since I had read Tanaka the Wizard.

A noble lady and a knight. In other words, some sort of Romeo and Juliet love story about forbidden romance.

And then there was the addition of a mistress, a second lady, to spice things up. Alan was such a stud…that said, I wasn't sure what I made of this situation. On one hand, I was inevitably jealous, but on the other, I didn't envy Alan's position when things got pretty complicated. Handling one girl was bad enough, but two?

Nah, not the kind of drama my heart could withstand.

Still, I was curious about this whole situation. Was there some sort of goal behind their decision to take mercenary missions together? Or was this solely for entertaining the self-centered daughter of some nobility?

Yeah…no matter how I looked at it, they made a party just to have threesomes. That was the whole reason why they banded together.

But will a party formed for the sole purpose of sex really be useful in an actual battle? And not just any battle but a rescue mission against a powerful dragon?

Suddenly I realized I had made a terrible mistake in approaching this orgy-party for help regarding this mission.

"Hey!"

I snapped out of my thoughts as Alicia's angry voice pierced into my ears. Blinking, I jolted and stared at the glaring Alicia.

"Hey! Are you listening?"

"No, I wasn't." I honestly didn't want to listen to Alicia's voice if I didn't have to.

"So what did you mean by slaying a dragon?"

"Exactly what it means. And you already know, right? It's to rescue the princess, of course."

"I know that! But we just have to rescue the princess, right? Why do we need to slay the dragon? Just grab her highness and make a run for it!"

"You make it sound so easy." I sighed and shook my head. This was why amateurs were always amateurs. "What if the dragon gives chase? You think it's going to just let us walk in and take the princess?"

"That…"

"Do you think we can outrun a dragon? That has wings and can fly?"

"No, I…"

"Therefore the best course of action is to slay it, right? That will give us the highest chances of success in saving her highness."

"Is…that so?"

A bead of perspiration rolled down Alicia's cheek as she stroked her chin and considered my explanation. Then she suddenly gained a bit of confidence and smugly placed her hands on her hips to boast.

"True enough. If you're hunting a dragon, then you'll need at least someone of my level."

"Indeed."

I made sure to mask the sarcasm in my voice. True to form, Alicia didn't possess a bullshit detector.

"Anyway, as I said, Hero-sama will be joining us for this mission. One of the heroes, Nagano Nanaka."

"Huh? Nagano Nanaka-sama?! She's participating in this mission?!"

"Yes," I confirmed. "She's handling the preparations as we speak."

"Hmm."

Alicia pondered for a while, contemplating deeply.

"A dragon…I see. Slaying it and rescuing her highness would be a huge achievement, right?"

"Hmm? Well, yes."

Honestly, I didn't know and I didn't care.

"Truthfully, if it wasn't for the case with the high orc, Father wouldn't have ordered me to come back like this…"

Alicia was sulking, but then her face turned red and she smiled slyly as she giggled sinisterly.

"But if I were to defeat a dragon then even that hard-headed father of mine will be convinced. He he he…which would mean that the three of us can once again…"

Engage in an orgy. I didn't need to read her mind to tell what she was thinking.

"The only problem is if her highness ends up falling for Alan too…no! I can't let that happen! Even if it's her highness, I won't allow her to take Alan away from me!"

Right. That was so going to be your priority. Groaning inwardly, I wondered if we were really going to be all right.

"All right!"

Standing up straight and placing a hand on her chest haughtily, Alicia beamed radiantly.

"I will personally lend you my strength! You have no problem with that, right?"

Honestly, I had a lot of problems with that. I felt as if I had turned into a wizard over the age of 30. Right, Tanaka the Wizard. I was behaving exactly like him right now. Whatever. Maybe I should enjoy my youth and worry about being an ossan later.

For now, I knew it wasn't wise to offend the person who was probably the only one in Havia willing to help me (except Nagano).

So I bowed humbly and lied with a straight face.

"Of course. You will certainly be a great help. I'll be counting on you. Just make sure you get Alan-san to come along. You know, the only one who seems remotely…reliable."

Straightening myself, I ran through a few things in my head. There were a few things I needed to plan and see through in advance of this mission.

I needed to contact Daniel and Elia, inform Regis Gremory of my location and movements, and calculate the time needed to get to the Iron Knights' fortress. From what I gathered, Nagano had stayed behind because she was under cover. None of the members in Kobayashi's clique were aware that she was one of the Eight Guardians.

Not yet, anyway.

"Well then, I have to prepare as well." Turning slightly in the direction of the gates, I added. "For more details, please ask Hughes-san. I'll let you know when Nagano-sama is done with her preparations. Get ready to move out tomorrow."

"Sure! I'll show you my greatness!"

More like how pathetic you were. Not that I could voice that out, and I wasn't Kobayashi or any of my former classmates. I shouldn't be judging on how pathetic people were or whatever. I had been a victim of bullying.

I wasn't going to become a bully myself.

Speaking of which, I had a feeling that this still wouldn't be enough, so I reminded Alicia.

"Again, I remind you, please contact Alan-san and get him to join us. Sophia-san and her magic might be useful as well. We need every person we can get."

Much more useful than an incompetent fool like you, anyway…

"All right!" Alicia was still behaving haughtily as she placed her hands on her hips again. "Leave it to me!"

"Yeah, I'm counting on you." Saluting, I then took my leave and left Alicia giggling proudly to herself like an idiot in the middle of the empty corridor.

I really hope this isn't a huge mistake…