The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

I seriously pondered whether there was a way to relay the Sword Saint’s answer without mentioning my name, but the conclusion I reached was simple—there wasn’t. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

I believed that the biggest reason this world had deviated from the original storyline was me. And the Sword Saint’s response was deeply intertwined with that very reason.

If I were to explain the situation while deliberately omitting the reason, I wouldn’t be able to answer the fundamental question: Why did the Sword Saint decide to apply for a teaching position?

That was probably why he had smiled at me.

He must have known from the start that I would end up in this predicament. That’s why he had guided the conversation in that direction, half-mocking me in the process.

In the end, I had walked right into the trap of my own accord.

And since I had no one to blame but myself, it made the situation even more frustrating.

For the next few days, I wavered back and forth, unable to decide what to do. I was truly grateful that Jennifer wasn’t my homeroom teacher. If she had been, I wouldn’t have even been able to escape to my dormitory right after class.

For some reason, Jennifer neither sent students to call for me nor came to find me herself. I wasn’t sure if she was giving me time or if the academy faculty had reached some conclusion on their own.

But for me... Well, it wasn’t exactly a good thing, but at the very least, it bought me some time.

Even so, there was a limit. Even I knew that I couldn’t put this off indefinitely. And with each passing day, my anxiety only grew.

By the fourth day after my conversation with the Sword Saint, Alice began giving me suspicious looks. Since she had always been able to see through my emotions, even when I tried to mask them while rewinding time, my current expressions—unfiltered—must have been even easier for her to read.

Just as I was about to give up and spill everything to Jennifer—

"You want to summon a gryphon for the academy festival?"

"Ah, well, not summon exactly... More like, just have it circle the sky once before flying off."

—To my great surprise, the student council requested a meeting with me regarding the festival preparations.

As I’ve explained before, the imperial family holds a slightly different position compared to other noble houses. While we contribute the largest donations, it would seem petty if we interfered with budget decisions. It would be like saying, I paid for this, so do as I say.

In a purely capitalist society, that might be an obvious stance. But in this world—a mix of extreme capitalism and deeply entrenched aristocracy and imperial traditions—prestige and justification were just as important as wealth.

Even though Alice and I were students of the same academy, circumstances had placed us in the positions of Crown Princess and the Empire’s second-in-command. I had never expected the student council to approach us with a request like this.

"You ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ do realize that gryphons are extremely dangerous predators, right?"

Alice furrowed her brows slightly as she spoke, causing the entire student council to flinch.

...Honestly, calling it just a predator was an understatement.

A gryphon could shred a tiger or a lion apart with a single swipe of its claws.

Or roast them alive with magic.

At present, the one in the imperial palace spent all its time lounging around a garden, eating and excreting in an endless cycle, making it difficult to tell if it was a winged pig or a gryphon. But at the very least, it was still a mythical beast... or something like that. It was even the Empire’s symbol.

Logically, there should have been more of them, but for some reason, that one had never returned to its kin.

"I assume you're aware of that, which is why you're only asking for it to fly overhead?"

When I said that, the student council president quickly nodded.

"May I ask what led to this idea?"

Honestly, I was curious about who came up with this plan.

Never mind dragging Alice and me into this—who in their right mind thought bringing a gryphon to the academy festival was a good idea? I had to at least give them credit for their guts.

They were probably a bit lacking in common sense, though.

"Ah, well..."

The student council president glanced around awkwardly, but the other members all turned their heads away, avoiding eye contact.

No loyalty whatsoever.

Well, it wasn’t like loyalty was common among nobles in the first place.

"...Currently, among the first-year students at the academy, there are two distinguished guests from foreign nations, correct?"

Charlotte and Lena.

Charlotte was a princess, so it made sense to use honorifics for her. But Lena came from an autonomous state centered around military rule, where noble hierarchies weren’t as rigid as in the Empire. Yet they still addressed her formally.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Then again, if nobles from other nations weren’t recognized as equals, it would lead to them looking down on foreign dignitaries.

Ordinary commoners being treated as lower-class wasn’t a huge issue, but if someone disrespected the child of a nation’s second-in-command, that could become a serious diplomatic problem. If, for example, a high-ranking Imperial Duke insulted them, it wouldn’t just be a personal conflict—it could escalate into a full-fledged international dispute.

Understanding that, I simply nodded.

"Furthermore, unlike previous festivals, this year’s event coincides with the final day of the year and the first day of the new year."

Ah.

I could already guess where this was going.

Alice had already caught on to what the student council president was getting at, but her expression remained subtly displeased.

"So... we thought that, as the dominant power of the continent, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to showcase the nation’s strength..."

As we silently listened without responding, the student council president’s voice gradually weakened until it faded into silence.

It wasn’t an unreasonable idea.

Charlotte and Lena were both daughters of high-ranking figures in their respective nations. Lena was one thing, but Charlotte was an actual princess—the legitimate heir to the throne.

And during the academy’s festival, it wasn’t uncommon for students’ parents, siblings, or relatives to visit. For nobles, the festival served as a social gathering, while commoners saw it as a chance to showcase their talents before the nobility.

If Charlotte’s father—the King of Belvur—attended, he wouldn’t come alone. There would be noble retainers accompanying him, attendants to those nobles, and so on, forming an entire diplomatic delegation.

So it made sense that the student council felt some pressure. Displaying the Empire’s symbol directly wasn’t a bad idea.

If Charlotte’s father actually came, that is.

A king visiting another country was vastly different from a president or prime minister making a diplomatic trip. Even if a president held supreme authority over their nation, they weren’t a king. If something were to happen to a president, they could simply be replaced through an election.

Of course, such an event would cause social upheaval, but presidential systems were designed to handle such contingencies. Whether the next president was related to the previous one or not was irrelevant—it wasn’t even something worth discussing.

But a king?

Especially a king who wielded power truly befitting that title?

They couldn’t simply travel freely. A king wasn’t a replaceable figure. Their authority was built on legitimacy, and that legitimacy had to remain steadfast, rooted firmly within their own nation.

From that perspective, Charlotte attending this academy was already an enormous risk by Belvur’s standards. After all, their future monarch was studying in another country—one that could potentially become an enemy nation.

The only reason this wasn’t seen as outright political insanity was because this world followed a European-inspired setting. If it had leaned more toward an East Asian political structure, Charlotte’s presence here could have easily been interpreted as taking a hostage.

"It would be better to avoid unnecessary risks by focusing only on appearances—"

"We will cooperate."

Alice had been about to reject the student council’s request, seemingly reaching the same conclusion I had. But my thoughts were different.

Since the Empire’s founding under the name of Fangryphon, there had never been a single recorded account of someone riding a gryphon through the skies.

Not one.

Even in fabricated legends, there wasn’t a single mention of such a thing.

And what did that mean?

It meant that not a single person knew how much time and effort it actually took to tame a gryphon.

In other words, if I disappeared for a while and later claimed, I was busy taming a gryphon, no one would be able to refute it.

And if I took it one step further...

It meant I now had a perfect excuse to delay my meeting with Jennifer.

"On the day of the festival, we shall present the sight of a gryphon soaring through the skies."

And with that, I accepted their request.