Before she knew it, Cardel had approached and muttered with a sigh. He was frowning heavily, seemingly displeased about something.

‘That’s going easy?’

It only looked like she was deliberately crushing Labro…

She normally didn’t have good feelings toward Labro, but she felt sorry for him to this degree.

Meanwhile, Evolaine’s eyes as she faced Labro were cold. Labro flinched at her chilling, oppressive gaze.

“Do you have some grudge against me? Why are you going this far?”

“A grudge?”

At Labro’s words, Evolaine snickered. It was clearly a sneer.

‘Of course you wouldn’t know. You charged recklessly without knowing the situation.’

Evolaine’s reason for publicly crushing him was simple.

First, Cardel’s order to strike Labro down.

Second, the filthy attitude of the strong using power to push aside the weak.

With just these two things, he’d met sufficient conditions to be humiliated.

“I don’t have any feelings toward you whatsoever.”

“Then stop already, won’t you? This is mock combat. The professor said personal feelings aren’t allowed. Are you planning to ignore tactics in actual battle too, blinded by grudges against opponents?”

At Labro’s outcry, the surroundings fell silent.

‘Well, look at that?’

What he said wasn’t wrong.

One important virtue on the battlefield is maintaining reason.

If you ruin the greater cause because of personal feelings, the damage would be tremendous.

Labro had called out that virtue, and as a result, created a situation where Evolaine could be criticized depending on how she answered.

She’d thought he was a blockhead, but he knew how to use his brain.

‘Guess he has something in that head after all.’

“Seems he made some effort to inherit the marquisate.”

Basilica, watching from the side, also left a cutting assessment.

“Why no answer? Ah, don’t know what to say?”

“Oh…”

At Labro’s provocation, Cardel let out a low sigh.

“Guess he wasn’t someone whose head worked after all.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll quietly pray for the repose of the Borzenia heir’s soul.”

Cardel quietly made the sign of the cross and clasped his hands in prayer.

They were briefly mesmerized by his appearance that seemed straight out of scripture, but soon Kale, coming to his senses, quietly added.

“Young Master, you’re making the sign of the cross in the wrong direction.”

“…Thanks.”

The embarrassed Cardel cleared his throat.

While the three fell into awkward silence, Evolaine spoke.

“Borzenia heir, I’ll ask just one thing.”

“Stop deflecting and answer my question first.”

Labro demanded triumphantly, but Evolaine continued regardless.

“I didn’t hear anything in the professor’s class about completely eliminating emotions during combat. Whether individual or collective, negative emotions can be useful cards during battle.”

“So?”

“So even if I have some feelings toward the heir, that’s not grounds to stop this combat.”

In other words, the virtue Labro had called out didn’t apply to the current situation.

Understanding Evolaine’s words, Labro’s face reddened.

Stopping a duel was solely the professor’s discretion. In mock combat, the basic rule was to continue fighting until the professor said to stop.

Labro had ignored the rules and stopped his duel with Evolaine, even disrupting others’ concentration.

“You only dozed during class, but I guess you did hear something.”

“…”

Kale and Soli heard nothing. Anyway, they didn’t hear it.

“Then I’ll take it we can resume the duel.”

Evolaine charged at Labro again and swung her sword.

The brutal duel continued until Labro’s sword broke and the professor finally called an end to combat.

* * *

The next day, the academy grew quite noisy over yesterday’s events.

Rumors that Evolaine had completely trampled Labro spread throughout the academy.

“Yesterday was really amazing. To think my escort knight is a champion of justice who can’t stand injustice.”

“…Please don’t tease me.”

“Why? It feels good, doesn’t it?”

Evolaine, her cheeks flushed pink, hung her head deeply.

Cardel had already talked about the duel, so Lucia and Elisa had grabbed her and tormented her until bedtime.

“Our Evolaine already implementing justice! As commander, I quite like that spirit, hohoho!”

“Sister, can’t you just be my escort knight? It’s such a waste for you to stick with brother.”

“Lucia, be quiet.”

Eventually Lucia overplayed her hand and the two were kicked out by Cardel, but that wasn’t the end of it.

“Evolaine, you accomplished something tremendous yesterday. Is there a reward you’d like?”

“…No, Your Grace.”

Even the duke she’d trusted started casually approaching her, so Evolaine had to flee to the academy like she was running away.

“You’re the one who started this in the first place, Cardel.”

“I didn’t know you’d proceed so spectacularly. Champion of justice.”

“Haah…”

A sigh escaped automatically. Thinking about how many more people would recognize her from now on made her head throb.

‘I shouldn’t stand out too much…’

“Why? Isn’t it nice to be popular?”

Basilica, completely missing the point, appeared in hamster form. Evolaine sighed again at how he naturally climbed onto her shoulder and munched on seeds.

‘Normally it would be.’

“You’re not normal? You’re not that different though?”

‘…That’s not it. I… have things I need to do.’

She was currently blending into everyday life peacefully, but she mustn’t forget her purpose.

There were various reasons for following Cardel to the academy, but the goal was one.

‘I need to find out news about the marquisate.’

To succeed in revenge against the marchioness, she needed to know what situation the marquisate was in.

Wasn’t that why she’d followed the duke and joined the Lacrel Knights?

She couldn’t forget her duty now, intoxicated by happiness.

“Really?”

Having finished the seeds, Basilica fumbled for new ones and said.

“You need to enjoy living a bit more.”

‘…What are you suddenly saying?’

“You shouldn’t live so anxiously from a young age. You’ll break down.”

“…”

Evolaine looked at Basilica then withdrew her gaze. Those were words she didn’t need.

Words that would drain her strength if she listened, that would make her lose her will for revenge.

She absolutely mustn’t get close to such things until she finished her revenge.

Basilica tapped Evolaine’s cheek with his small paw.

He seemed to be trying to comfort her, but maybe because he’d transformed into a hamster? It wasn’t helpful at all.

At the sensation like a small cotton ball tickling her cheek, Evolaine pressed her lips tightly together.

Earlier her eyes had stung, but now she wanted to laugh instead. It was truly maddening.

Evolaine lowered her head again to avoid being caught by Basilica.

The sight of her trembling as she held back laughter was quite something.

At her behavior—looking gloomy then trying to smile again—Cardel, sitting across from her, quietly put down his sandwich.

“…Dame, aren’t you eating your sandwich?”

“I will… eat it.”

“…Alright.”

Barely suppressing her voice, Evolaine picked up her sandwich.

At the entrance ceremony she’d befriended a sparrow, and now she was friends with a hamster munching seeds on her shoulder.

Cardel genuinely began to worry about Evolaine’s social skills.

After barely finishing lunch, Evolaine and Cardel moved to the lecture hall.

“Dame, did you bring writing utensils today?”

“…”

“…”

They say you can’t fix blue-haired people. The old saying was completely right.

Evolaine was really attending the academy just to ‘listen’ to classes.

“I’m satisfied that you’re listening to class without dozing off. Really.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t meant for you to rationalize it though.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Evolaine, who’d become quite shameless, shrugged her shoulders.

With clouded eyes, Cardel forcibly pressed spare writing utensils into Evolaine’s hands.

“Young Master, Dame Evolaine.”

Around when silent pressure was passing between the two, saviors appeared for Evolaine.

“Ah, you came.”

It was Soli and Kale, who’d come to keep the promise from the last mock combat class.

Why Poli had to die, what were the things that seemed suspicious—they wanted to know too, so they’d gathered courage.

“Let’s move locations.”

“Understood.”

The four moved to a small park within the academy. It was an open place on all sides, but that’s precisely why it was safe for conversation.

With many eyes watching around them, they could conversely blend into the crowd.

“Then let’s continue yesterday’s discussion.”

At Evolaine’s words, Soli and Kale nodded. The two seemed to have made firm resolutions after yesterday’s mock combat.

“Based on speculation, your friend Sir Poli seems to have been used as an experimental subject to succeed at some experiment. Sir Gais mentioned that the fanatic he saw when working as a mercenary behaved similarly.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Hearing the recap of yesterday’s conversation, Soli’s complexion paled. She seemed to be hearing about fanatics for the first time.

“Miss Magrita, please tell us if talking about this is difficult.”

“…No, I’m fine. I want to help too. I don’t want to be this powerless anymore.”

Though she looked somewhat exhausted, her eyes showed firm resolve unlike yesterday.

“Understood. However, remember that pushing yourself is actually poison.”

“…Yes.”

Kale looked worried about Soli but seemed to have decided to respect her wishes and didn’t say anything particular.

“Sir Gais, I have something to ask.”

“Please speak.”

“Do you know anything about demons?”

At Evolaine’s question, the surroundings fell silent. Kale and Soli’s expressions hardened, and Cardel’s eyes widened in surprise.

“…Dame, what are you saying right now?”

“Exactly what I said. I just want to confirm if you know anything about demons.”

“You know that’s not what I mean. Why demons all of a sudden…”