“Yep. This is the reason Thousand Blade and all other swordcraft academies have been forced to reconfigure their schedules,” Shii said. “At the end of March, the Holy Knights Association made a request of Liengard. It asked us to prepare for the upcoming world war by selecting and training our most promising young swordfighters to strengthen our military. This initiative started last year, though, so it’s not really cause for suspicion.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
The holy knights had always strived to recruit talented swordcraft students, and they had been working extra hard to do that in recent years. The most prominent example of that initiative was the new system for fast-tracking young swordfighters to senior holy knight status. I had made use of that system myself.
“What I am concerned about, however, are the actions of the noble faction. Something smells fishy…,” Shii said.
“Fishy?” I asked, and she nodded.
“The noble faction always—and I mean ALWAYS—makes a fuss and tries to oppose any measures or politics the imperial faction tries to enact. But for some reason, its members unanimously approved the plan to hold the Sword Master Festival early. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“Could it be…because they think it’s going to benefit the country?” I asked.
“Absolutely not,” Shii said, shaking her head. “The noble faction doesn’t care at all about benefiting Liengard. They pushed so hard for the Sword Master Festival to be held early because it will benefit them.”
…Now that Shii mentioned it, I did find it hard to believe that Patriot would do anything for the good of the country.
“I don’t know what they’re plotting…but something’s off about this year’s Sword Master Festival,” Shii said. “Everything’s proceeding too smoothly. The noble faction might try something.”
“That’s concerning…,” I responded.
I was distrustful of the noble faction as well after my meeting with Patriot. I couldn’t dismiss Shii’s concern as unfounded.
“As we told you before, there is only one way that the noble faction gains control of Liengard: by eliminating you from the political stage. You’re a huge hindrance to them,” Shii explained.
“I am…?” It didn’t feel great to be called a hindrance.
“They’ll do whatever it takes to get you out of the picture. For example…they might poison you. That’s the most popular assassination method among the nobility.”
“Huh… Fortunately, poison doesn’t work on me.”
The battle against Diehl Reinstad and his exotic venoms had left me almost entirely immune to poisonous substances. It was no exaggeration to say that most poisons—especially ones that would be known to the nobility—were completely harmless to me.
“Oh… Well, they could switch out your weapon! What would you do if they replaced your sword with a dull one before a Sword Master Festival match? Surely not even you can fight bare-handed,” Shii said.
“I have my black sword, so that wouldn’t really be a problem…,” I countered. I could summon the black sword from Zeon’s darkness whenever I wanted, so no one could take that from me.
“Oh, right. Well…they could, you know… Umm…,” Shii said, her voice growing weaker until she eventually fell silent. “…It really isn’t easy to hurt you.”
It seemed like she had failed to think of anything the noble faction could do to harm me.
“A-anyway! As we told you before, the noble faction has won over one of the Seven Holy Blades! You need to be careful!”
“Okay, I will. Thank you for the warning.”
We both fell silent.
“…”
“…”
The unusual circumstances of being alone in the Student Council room at night made this silence especially awkward.
…I should come up with something to talk about. I racked my brain for a good topic…and found something perfectly relevant to our conversation.
“Umm, do you mind if I tell you something?” I asked.
“What is it?” Shii replied.
“I went to Patriot Bolnard’s mansion yesterday.”
“Oh, did you? Duke Bolnard’s mansion…? Wait, Bolnard?!”
Shii spit out her tea.
“Hey, President! You got tea on the sofa!” I said.
“S-sorry… No, now’s not the time for that! What compelled you to go to Duke Bolnard’s mansion?! Did he approach you?! What did you talk about?!”
“We didn’t talk about anything important. He just invited me to join the noble faction.”
“Allen! That’s exactly what the imperial faction is most afraid of! We knew they would try to recruit you!” Shii yelled, her composure shattered.
“H-hey, please settle down. Have some tea,” I urged her.
“Hrmm…”
Shii sipped her tea, her expression still anxious.
“So? How did you respond to his invitation?” she asked.
“I told him it was out of the question,” I said.
“Wow… That’s a very clear rejection,” Shii said, her eyes wide with surprise.
“Yeah. I realized after talking to him for a while that our visions for the future were incompatible.”
“You make it sound like a band breaking up…”
“Ah-ha-ha, I can see that. Anyway, if I was asked whether my position is closer to that of the imperial faction or the noble faction, I would say the former.”
The noble faction wanted to support the nobility and discard the weak. Their ideal society differed greatly from mine.
“R-really? You’re leaning toward the imperial faction instead of the noble faction? Does that mean we can count you as an ally?” Shii asked.
“Yes. After all, you’re a member of the imperial faction.”
Shii had done so much for me at Thousand Blade. She helped me every day with the Student Council and, more recently, let me enjoy myself at the Christmas party…
…Wait. Something felt wrong about that thought. She has done a lot for me…right?
Now that I thought about it, I’d never actually wanted to join the Student Council. Shii had practically forced me into it with her selfish antics. And the Christmas party was not a good time. She’d taken advantage of the Crush Your Crush Competition to launch a dirty surprise attack against me.
Has she ever done a single thing to help me…?
No, I decided not to go down that line of thought. Shii had helped me out—I’d just leave it at that. Some things, it was better not to think too deeply about.
“…”
Shii watched me as I thought. Her cheeks had grown slightly flushed.
“H-hey, Allen… What exactly did you mean by that?” she asked.
“…? I meant that you’re my friend, and that you being in the imperial faction is as good a reason as any to support it.”
I meant it exactly how I’d said it. What was there to be confused by?
“Haah… Yeah. I should’ve known not to expect any deeper meaning…”
“…?”
And with that, my secret nighttime meeting with Shii came to a rather confusing end.