After successfully finishing today’s lesson and returning to the office, Krea, who had been sent shopping ahead of time, was already devouring cake.
She picked up pieces with one hand, opened her mouth wide, and… Frea-san peeked in from the side, pushed me out of the way, entered the room, and slammed the door shut.
A few dull thuds echoed before the door opened again. I peeked inside to make sure it wasn’t a splatter scene.
Krea lay flattened on the floor like a squashed frog.
Frea-san sat on my desk.
What in the world happened?
「……Cake～?」
「Yeah, you can eat.」
「Yeees～」
Camille pulled Noie’s hand and headed toward the sofa.
It’s fine. The cake on the center table is a white cream cake loaded with whipped cream. No blood topping or anything, so it should be safe.
In this world, fruit toppings are rare.
It’s not that the culture doesn’t exist, it’s just the difficulty of preserving fresh fruit.
So it usually becomes jam. Cakes with fresh fruit are almost never seen unless it’s a special occasion.
Thanks to dragons, even something like this has become a problem in this place…
「Noie.」
「……Yes.」
「Go hunt lots of dragons, okay?」
「Yes.」
Her ahoge wagged happily as she started eating cake with Camille.
Frea-san shot me a dissatisfied glance, but I ignored it.
For delicious cake, I’m willing to become a demon.
「So, squashed frog over there? No changes to tomorrow’s schedule, right?」
「……Yesh.」
「Got it. Then stay squashed.」
Getting involved would probably bring me misfortune.
For now, today’s work…
Lately, because I’ve been causing too much trouble, the amount of work coming my way has decreased.
Even better, the number of errors in the documents has dropped dramatically.
Someone is probably suffering the consequences and resenting me for it, though.
Wait a minue. Starting tomorrow Noie will be on standby duty at the post.
If someone’s planning an assassination, they’ll definitely strike when Noie isn’t around, right? What do I do?
「Hmm～」
「Is something wrong?」
As I stood with arms crossed worrying, Frea-san approached with documents to submit and called out to me.
「I want to learn magic.」
「So that’s what it is.」
「Is there anyone good who could teach me?」
「When it comes to being Argusta-sama’s teacher…」
Frea-san also crossed her arms and thought.
This was the real problem.
There was no one to teach me magic. Strictly speaking, no one with both the position and free time to do so.
Teaching magic to a member of the royal family, even a former one.
One wrong step and they could easily assassinate me, so apparently only someone with solid status and impeccable character would do.
「……It’s not easy to think of anyone.」
「What about learning from you, Frea-san?」
I tried asking boldly.
She glanced over her shoulder toward Noie.
Noie’s ahoge was still happily swaying while she ate cake with Camille.
「In my case, I studied under a teacher for a while, but most of it was self-taught.」
「You can’t teach others?」
「That’s right.」
This is why genius types are so troublesome.
「By the way, Argusta-sama, what kind of magic do you want to learn?」
「Hmm～. I know what’s usable, but I don’t know what I’m suited for.」
「I see. Then let’s check.」
Huh?
She went back to her desk and returned with a strange sheet of paper.
It had a black-and-green camouflage-like pattern, an odd piece of paper.
「Hold it like this, cupping it with both hands. Yes, that’s good.」
「What is this?」
「Yes. I was planning to use it as part of a lesson. I thought of showing it to students with magical aptitude.」
So that’s why it was prepared. Thanks for the help.
Curious, the squashed idiot on the floor and the princess eating cake came over.
Noie kept her ahoge wagging happily while she began conquering her third slice.
「So what do I do?」
「Focus your mind on the paper. It will change depending on your aptitude.」
「Focus my mind… that’s vague… wait, it’s floating.」
The paper trembled slightly and floated above my palm.
「Argusta-sama is the emission type.」
Frea-san took the paper back and did the same thing herself.
The wrinkled sheet stretched out perfectly smooth like new.
「Reinforcement type looks like this.」
「What about the other one?」
「It becomes all wrinkly.」
She swatted away her sister’s curious reaching hand, folded the paper lightly, and stretched it out again.
「Hm? With this, you could easily find people who can use magic, right? What was that thing we peeked into during the festival?」
「The basin? Ah, you mean the sacred basin owned by the royal family. That one can be used any number of times, but this paper can only be used once. It doesn’t tell you the aptitude, but if you’re just looking for people with talent, the basin is better.」
「Huh～」
While Noie ate cake, the princess whispered something in her ear.
Noie stood up lightly, walked over to Frea-san, snatched the paper, and placed it on her own palm.
「Ah.」
The moment Frea-san let out a bare, surprised sound, the paper on Noie’s palm exploded.
Literally, it stretched to its limit and burst outward in all directions.
Noie thrust her head forward as if demanding praise, so I stroked her.
「This is reinforcement type?」
「……Yes.」
Frea-san nodded wearily and gave a humorless smile.
「That’s exactly the problem with this. It’s fragile but very valuable and expensive. Yes, truly expensive.」
「……Please send the replacement cost and an apology request for anything you like to the Dragunight family.」
Facing her completely furious expression, all I could do was apologize with complete sincerity.
By the way, later… it really was an extremely expensive item.
When Krea brought the bill, she looked at the amount, did a double-take, and turned pale.
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