Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 4 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Prologue of the Election Tournament

Part 1

In the SHR at the beginning of the week, the students were informed of the implementation of not the [election] but the [Election Battle].

“Team?”

The students made a stir upon hearing that unusual word, Liz Liza-sensei slammed the teacher’s desk to quiet students down.

“In order to display the strength and leadership of a knight, the candidate will lead their supporters, as their comrade, and fight in this team battle. You all should think about what is required in a team to organize a good team.”

It was a team battle tournament that would be performed with two swordsmen and two Magica Stigma in each team, four people per team.

That was Team Battle Election.

“Do all the ordinary students just get to watch?”

“No, when the tournament is all over, a vote will be performed next. Even if, for example, someone wins the overall victory in the tournament, but the students judged that the way he fought is not suitable, then his chances to become the Chief Student Council President are next to zero. A manifesto for the like of a knight is not just lip service but is to be shown through battle…it could be said that this is not just a mere [kouyakumanifesto] but a touyakubattle pledge.”

In other words, this tournament battle served the function of an election campaign like in a conventional election. The students would watch how the candidate fought and decide the result in a vote.

“What will happen with the current student council president of the Magic Division and the Sword Division?”

One of the students inquired anxiously. She might be a fan of Kaguya-senpai or Hoshikaze-senpai.

“This is not a vote of no confidence, so as the general rule the present set-up of the student council will be maintained.”

Hearing that answer, the students, Kazuki included, released a sigh of relief.

“However, holding two positions at the same time will not be recognized. For example, in the case that Otonashi Kaguya is elected as the Chief Student Council President, then Kaguya will be retired from the seat of the Magic Division student council president. Thereupon, because the seat of the Magic Division student council president will be vacant, an additional election will be performed in response.”

At the blackboard, Liz Liza-sensei put the <Chief Student Council President> at the top, below it <Magic Division Student Council President> and <Sword Division Student Council President> were written side-by-side, forming the picture of an organizational chart.

“The candidates will be gathered either by recommendation or by announcing their candidacy. The applications for this will be accepted in the staff room, so if you are interested then notify the staff room today. For recommendations, in the case that consent from the person concerned is not acquired, then it will be considered invalid. If an application of recommendation comes in, then the person concerned will be contacted, so give your declaration of intent speedily.”

The classroom became noisy with people talking, this event that was happening so suddenly was something of great interest to many students.

However for Kazuki, this event was not somebody else’s problem.

Because long before this day, the headmaster had told him that he would recommend him secretly as the Chief Student Council President.

There was no option to veto. In order to continue to stay at the Witch’s Mansion, Kazuki had to win the seat of the Chief Student Council President. Headmaster Amasaki would not allow it otherwise.

However, even though influential people like Kaguya-senpai existed, were they going to gather them all as candidates in this election? How could this develop into such a large-scale tournament, he had a bad feeling about this.

For this event that had no precedent in the past, it couldn't be denied that the teachers were starting this without considering objections from the students.

“The briefing intended for the candidates will be carried out in the auditorium after school, the drawing for the seeding of the candidates in the tournament will be also conducted at this time. Until that time the candidates should begin forming their teams. As everyone knows, people who served as officers in the student council would go through the elite course even at the Knight Order, but this time a bonus will be awarded on the student evaluation from just participating in the tournament. I hope everyone will participate in this proactively. Also, there is one more point...”

At that point the informative matter had been finished or so we thought, but Liz Liza-sensei still had some words to continue.

“As of last weekend, there were three incidents where students were assaulted by a suspicious person, all of it happened in succession. The students are safe, but the perpetrator was not caught by the monitoring cameras and he still hasn't been captured. Accordingly, a quest intended for the student council and high-ranking students to perform patrols and strengthen the security was created. Reparation must be exacted from the perpetrator as soon as possible for his conduct of looking down at the Knight Academy, don’t you all agree? For that reason, students who don’t have confidence in their skills should refrain from leaving their dormitory at night.”

The Knight Academy was attacked by a suspicious person…what a bold suspicious person.

During the commotion the students created, Kazuki was reminded of the assault by an unknown person during the date.

And then during lunch break that day…

In order to have lunch together, Kazuki, Mio, Lotte, and Koyuki, had joined their desks into a cross shape. The moment they were going to begin, all of their cell phones vibrated simultaneously.

It was text summons from Kaguya-senpai.

Even Lotte, who came to Japan penniless, was given a cell phone by the academy.

The four people left the school building and headed to the Witch’s Mansion by crossing through the garden.

In the living room of the Witch’s Mansion, the likely members were already gathered together:

The upperclassmen duo of Kaguya-senpai and Hoshikaze-senpai.

The familiar Sword Division student council trio of Kanae, Kamiizumi-senpai and Torazou-senpai.

Furthermore even Kohaku and Kazuha-senpai were there.

The influential people whom Kazuki was acquainted with were here in full-force.

Everyone was relaxing on the antique sofa and chairs or was standing around the table freely.

Kazuki and the others also took a seat at a suitable sofa. Mio sat on Kazuki’s right side, Koyuki sat on his left side, Lotte, being a bit lost, sat on Kazuki’s lap.

Kazuki was, ‘Oi’, thinking so but he hugged Lotte from behind tightly.

“I wonder if everyone is here with this… I called everyone here, of course, because of none other than the matter of the Team Battle Election.”

Kaguya-senpai looked around at everyone from the center of the living room as she started the conversation.

“In this room, the preeminent champions of this academy are gathered en masse. I want us to discuss and decide how these members will be divided into teams. First of all, how many among us are going to become candidates? Of course I got a recommendation for this election.”

“I am recommended too though.”

Hoshikaze-senpai raised her hand at the very beginning. There was no way this popular person wouldn't get recommended.

“That, you don’t have any intention to step down, right?”

“Yes. I lost when we fought for the seat of the Magic Division’s student council presidency, but this time I’ll win for sure against Kaguya, you’ll see!”

“Fufufu, what fine courage… I’ll make Hikaru cry out beautiful sounds this time again!”

Kaguya-senpai grinned broadly and laughed towards Hoshikaze-senpai who stood up; sparks were flying while they were staring down each other.

“I also received a recommendation, but I turned it down.”

The one who said that brusquely was Kanae, who was leaning against the wall and crossed her arms.

“Why?” Kaguya-senpai asked her.

“That’s obvious. The only suitable person as the Chief Student Council President is Nii-sama after all. I mean, it’s not like I became the student council president because I wanted to be one in the first place. It’s only because when I was aiming to be the strongest in the Sword Division, they made me the president as they pleased, that was all.

“The same with me~”

Hearing Kanae’s words, Kamiizumi-senpai who was sitting languidly on the sofa just followed along blindly without care.

“These two are no good humans whose good points are only their strength, all the practical work was pushed on to me just like that…”

Torazou-senpai who was sitting to the side of Kamiizumi-senpai powerlessly leaned back on the sofa with his exhaustion obvious to see.

“Then, Kana-chan is going to enter Otouto-kun’s team to fight together?”

“No…I’ll fight Nii-sama! Nii-sama, you haven’t forgotten right? During the school entrance ceremony, the oath we made that we are going to be rivals from now on too!”

“I remember but… are we going to fulfill that promise in this tournament!?”

“For Nii-sama to stand at the top of this academy, you have to get through the wall that is me!”

Kanae took a step away from the wall where she had been leaning and stared intensely at Kazuki with burning eyes.

“…With a powerful person like Kanae-san standing at the neutral position, it will become a dividing line between victory and defeat for they who are able to recruit her as a member. So in other words, the gist of this talk is something like that isn't it?”

When Hoshikaze-senpai murmured so, Kaguya-senpai was nodding strongly while saying “Correct! It’s just as you say!”

“I don’t want a bitter competition unfolding between powerful people, so like this I created place where we all are gathered to talk it out between us. First I want all of us gathered here to declare their position whether they are a candidate or free! Is Otouto-kun a candidate too?”

“Yes, I was recommended.”

…Although he didn't say who was the one that recommended him.

“I am neither recommended nor announcing my candidacy desu.” “I am not either.” “…Same with me.”

In succession Lotte, Koyuki, and Mio, that group of three announced their position in turn. Mio was pouting a little in dissatisfaction. It seemed she wanted to get a recommendation from somebody.

“This is a chance that is hard to encounter, so isn’t it fine if you announce your candidacy?”

Koyuki glanced at Mio and said so.

When Mio made her self-introduction on the first day of school, there was her proclamation that she was aiming for student council president.

“If I do that I won’t be able to form a team with Kazuki…at any rate I don’t get the feeling that I could win against Kazuki or Kaguya-senpai.”

“That’s unexpectedly realistic of you.” Koyuki made an amazed face while saying that.

“But a student of Magic Division that can enter Kazuki-oniisan’s team is just one person right desu?”

When Lotte said that, those three were immediately glaring at each other.

Suddenly, Kazuki became conscious of everyone’s positivity level. The positivity level graph floated in front of his eyes spontaneously.

Amasaki Mio―146 Lotte―114 Hiakari Koyuki―108 Otonashi Kaguya―88

Hoshikaze Hikaru―50 Tsukahara Kazuha―29

Lotte and Koyuki’s positivity level enabled him to use the powerful [level 5 magic], while the high number of positivity that Mio had reached enabled him to use the [level 7 magic] that even Mio herself still couldn’t use.

“Hiakari, didn’t you fight alone with Kazuki constantly the other day in the academy’s underground? You should concede this time.”

“If you say that, wasn’t Amasaki-san in a party with just Kazuki for a long time?”

“Then taking the interval, this is my turn desu.”

Against Lotte who attempted to profit from the fight between Mio and Koyuki, Mio intimidated her with “Nyaa-“.

Thereupon Lotte was barking “Wan!” cheerfully and Koyuki was muttering “Puu”.

Hoshikaze-senpai who was watching over the three quarreling with each other like their guardian laughed “Ahaha”.

“Well, rather than recruiting from the wan-nyaa-puu trio who just entered the academy a month ago, the second year students are stronger, but as I thought if I can, I want to group together with the comrades from the Witch’s Mansion."

“I was recommended too, but I stepped back. The burden is too heavy.” “The same with me~”

Torazou senpai was going impossible, impossible, while waving his hand, following that Kamiisori-senpai was just following after him blindly.

“So all three of the Sword Division’s student council are not becoming candidates. No, if it’s like that then what will happen to the Sword Division’s student council now? Kanae is not the president anymore, right?”

Suddenly Kazuki noticed and asked. During the incident before where they fought against Naiarlatoteph, there was the event where Kohaku defeated Kanae and usurped the political power of the Sword Division.

“Even now Kohaku is still the president. I have zero intention to return to that post. At last that burden was removed from my shoulders. From now on I am not chased anymore by any routine tasks and I can give my undivided attention to Nii-sama Love!”

Next to Kanae whose expression was so bright, Kohaku’s expression was darkening drastically.

“…At that time I had an objective and stole the president’s seat, but now that it has become like this that position is nothing more than a burden. There are lots of routine tasks, it’s like everyday there are always opinion letters and life consultations brought by the students, I don’t remember the names of all the students…this one couldn’t possibly reach Kana-nyan-senpai’s charisma. Using this chance this one plans to resign from the position. And then this one will make a proposal for democratic elections to be carried out in the Sword Division from now on!”

“Na!? Wait a second, are you planning to abandon your post!?”

“This one will have Kana-nyan-senpai returned as president by any means necessary! For that reason, regarding the Chief Student Council Presidency too, this one had received the recommendation from Mikohime-sama but I declined it.”

“My recommendation was useless in the end.”

At Kohaku’s side, Kazuha-senpai pouted.

“Conversely, I was recommended by Kohaku but turned it down. If someone like me announced my candidacy, I’d get laughed…”

These two close friends, Kohaku and Kazuha, mutually recommended each other but it looked like both of them turned it down together.

“Then the candidates that are in this place are Hikaru, Otouto-kun, and I, the three of us isn’t it? The number is unexpectedly few.”

“But I feel that based on the number of people this is just fine, we can divide the eleven people here into three teams.”

Everyone was nodding while Kaguya-senpai and Hoshikaze-senpai were counting the number on their fingers. There were eleven people in this room, so the calculation was that one team had to invite a swordsman from the outside.

“Then, I’m entering Hikaru-senpai’s team desu!”

From among the group of three who were still glaring down each other, Lotte took a step back and hugged Hoshikaze-senpai.

Hoshikaze-senpai happily laughed and hugged her back. …It felt like seeing a prince and a princess.

“I really want to group together with Koyuki-chan, because I have known her the longest.”

Kaguya-senpai gently took Koyuki’s hand. Koyuki was saying “Understood” and grasped back Kaguya-senpai’s hand.

“I’m together with Kazuki-!”

Mio looked as if she was being obstinate by herself alone and grabbed Kazuki’s arm.

“By any chance, is Mio worried about me?”

“After all, if I’m not at your side, if Kazuki’s heart is stopped then…”

While clinging closely to Kazuki’s arm, Mio was looking down with a face that looked like it would burst into tears.

“It’s fine you know, I won’t let something like my heart stopping happen that easily...”

Kazuki smiled wryly while stroking Mio’s head with the intention of soothing her.

“Kazuki, add this one too as your comrade. And then, when we gain the overall victory, let’s get married.”

“If you stop pressing for marriage forcefully, then it’s fine to let you join too.”

“Muu… Understood,” with a sour look, Kohaku was added to the team.

In panic, Kazuha-senpai came and flared up.

“Just wait, wait, wait, Kohaku! So you are joining the team of that shameless man!?”

“Mikohime-sama...Sorry, this one wants to fight together with Kazuki.”

“I don’t have any acquaintances other than Kohaku in this place, you know!? I got called here without even knowing the reason yet I am made to taste this solitude…Gr, group formation nightmare…!”

It seemed a strange trauma was stimulated inside Kazuha-senpai, her face was getting pale. Since a while ago Kazuha-senpai had been continuously feeling uncomfortable in the Witch’s Mansion.

“Then enter this team together with this one!”

“Eh? Kazuha-senpai is going to enter my team, is that so?”

When Kazuki’s eyes opened wide in surprise, Kazuha-senpai was shouting “Don’t misunderstand!”

“It’s because I want to fight together with Kohaku! After all Kohaku is…she is my friend!”

“Mikohime-sama…to go as far as joining with this one on the same team with Kazuki, whom you dislike…”

Kohaku felt touched in her heart and stared at Kazuha-senpai.

“Then don’t call me Mikohime-sama I said! Call my name properly―!”

“Ka, Kazuha-senpai…”

Kohaku who was not allowed to call Kazuha-senpai as mikohime was finally defeated decisively.

“I did it…! Though if you can I want you to call me Kazuha without honorific…!”

Kazuha-senpai did a little guts pose.

{GUWAHHAHHA, with this you two are not a master and retainer, but you two have become genuine friends right, Kazuha!}

The avatar of Futsunushi no Kami came out at Kazuha-senpai’s side and guffawed loudly.

Just like how Kohaku had decided Kazuki was her future husband as she pleased, it seemed she also decided Kazuha-senpai was her master.

For some reason, Kohaku really made extreme assumptions, or perhaps he should say that she was a really straight person when she had decided something.

“Shut up you stupid Futsu no Kami! Don’t just come out as you please!!”

Kazuha-senpai turned bright red as she waved her hand (funfun!) around at Futsunushi no Kami’s avatar.

The charming and also reliable swordsmen duo were added to Kazuki’s team.

Seeing that situation from where she was leaning on the wall, Kanae walked and approached Kaguya-senpai’s direction.

“Oi, Kaguya. Enter me into your team.”

“Kana-chan is entering my team? So you are finally going to be my friend!?”

“Don’t misunderstand! I’m reluctant to be grouped together with you but…I have to do this to be the greatest wall for Nii-sama. For that sake I must create the strongest team!”

Kanae and Kaguya-senpai grasped each other’s hands tightly. Without doubt, the strongest team of this academy was formed right here.

“Oi, Iori. You too join us here.”

“Eh, I don’t want to though~. Hoshikaze-san is way cooler! Though actually with Hayashizaki-kun is also fine~”

“That’s okay, come to me.” When Hoshikaze-senpai spread her hands with a princely smile, “Kyaa—“ Kamiizumi-senpai sprang up from her chair and flew to Hoshikaze-senpai spiritedly.

“Fuh, it couldn’t be helped…Torazou. You’re just a leftover good-for-nothing but it’s sufficient.”

“…Rather than Kanae-kaichou, I too want to be in the prince Hoshikaze’s camp that looks gentler, they seem better.”

“What are you saying? Hoshikaze-hikaru has a man-phobia you know? Have some consideration, you idiot.”

Kanae dragged Torazou-senpai’s arm without allowing him to give his consent or refusal. Torazou-senpai was going “Ah, that’s so” and consenting.

“Besides you like mature women and there are no women here that meet your preference right? Don’t get so picky.”

“No, it’s not that I think of Hoshikaze-san in that way, it’s just that the president duo in this side is very scary, you see…”

“Torazou-kun? I am not scary at all you know?”

Kaguya-senpai crept up unnoticed behind Torazou-senpai, then she suddenly seized his head with both hands.

“HIII!? Guernica-san is coming!”

“Wh, who are you calling Guernica-san!”

Kaguya-senpai was grinding Torazou-senpai’s head (guriguri) with a jolt.

“With this the division of the eleven people is over. Though only my team is lacking one person.”

Hoshikaze-senpai said so after giving all present an once-over look.

Hayashizaki Kazuki – Amasaki Mio – Hikita Kohaku – Tsukahara Kazuha.

Otonashi Kaguya – Hiakari Koyuki – Hayashizaki Kanae – Yamada Torazou.

Hoshikaze Hikaru – Lotte – Kamiizumi Iori.

“The presidents duo team is a little bit scary but, our team is also not really bad isn’t it?”

Mio at his side was whispering at his earlobe. But Kazuki was harboring a faint anxiety, he knitted his eyebrows.

“Certainly we have strong members but…I have a feeling we will be affected by the rules.”

“Rules?” said Mio while she tilted her head.

And then, after school:

The candidates along with their team members were gathered in the auditorium.

The auditorium stood tall in the inner part of the fountain square at the center of the academy, it was a remarkably splendorous building. With its classic brickwork, it was fine to say that this building along with the fountain square were the symbol of this academy.

The school entrance ceremony was carried out at the square in front of the fountain for the sake of the dragon handling performance, but large ceremonies like the student general meeting or the graduation ceremony were carried out in the auditorium.

Kazuki and the others, a total of eleven people were finally arriving in groups at the auditorium.

When the heavy door was opened, the auditorium was faintly bright from the indirect lighting that was installed on the high ceiling that drew a gentle curve, innumerable number of chairs were lined up facing the stage like a solemn theatre.

“There is still no one here but I wonder if there are other proper candidates? Most of the top ranks in the second year had been done in by Kaguya at duel, so they won’t even feel like coming already right? Ahaha.”

While sitting on the suitable seat, Hoshikaze-senpai was laughing.

“What done in, come on-, don’t say it like I am a yankee.”

Kaguya-senpai let out a huff.

Kaguya-senpai had received hypnotic suggestion that [she should be the strongest] from her father, the former headmaster Otonashi.

Because of the influence of that, it seemed that until now Kaguya-senpai had kicked around the other powerful people in duels.

“Moreover there are a lot of people who didn’t want to fight Kaguya a second time.”

“Ah, I can understand that.”

Kazuki immediately held the same opinion. The spell lineup that would make people faint in agony such as [Fruitless Flower of HatredFeel Pain], [Pitch Black of Self-MutilationSuicide Black], and [Double PainUltra Violence], the senses isolation from [Extreme Circle of Neighboring DeathNear Death Roulette], then while the opponent was suffering from all that they would be assaulted by [Darkness of the Bottom of the ShadowDeep Specter], all of that was a well-nigh horror. She wouldn’t use it at the duel against her fellow students but outcome such as [Hell Imaginary FireGuernica] was also accompanying her fight.

“Hoshikaze-senpai, who keeps challenging Kaguya-senpai however many times, there is no doubt, you are an M aren’t you?”

Koyuki was whispering such, hearing that Kazuki made a face of realization.

“Now that you say it…it’s like that isn’t it?”

“Wait! That is a misunderstanding you know, Hayashizaki-kun! Because, isn’t it frustrating to keep losing!!”

“That’s right, the prince is only being brave!”

From Hoshikaze-senpai’s side, a girl was suddenly putting out her face.

She was the member that Hoshikaze-senpai recruited, the Sword Division’s second year. Her name was Kimura Tomomi-san.

She had a small stature with braided hair, her atmosphere was like a naïve small-breed dog. With just one glance it was impossible to see her as a strong swordsman, but…seeing her leg muscle, he was able to guess that she was fairly skilled.

“Wait a second Kazuki, where are you staring so intensely at!?”

Toward Kazuki who was secretly observing the body’s lower half of a female he was meeting for the first time, Mio pressed a question with her sharp eye.

“It’s just the leg muscle. Hayashizaki-style is a school that puts importance in observing.”

“It’s that kind of fetish!? Pervert! …Even my legs are beautiful, see. Look here-.”

Mio turned her skirt lightly and revealed her beautiful slender legs. Though in truth, he didn’t have that kind of fetish at all.

“Kazuki, make one wrong step with your speech before and you’ll become a mere pervert swordsman. Amasaki-san too, please don’t expose your legs so easily.”

Koyuki interjected with an amazed expression.

On the other side, Kimura-senpai continued in Hoshikaze-senpai’s defense heatedly.

“In order to defeat the evil student council president and clear away the darkness in this academy, the prince continued to fight against the unparalleled atrocious magic without faltering! Our fan club is always seeing that courageous back without fail!”

What an amazing passion. For some reason it seemed Hoshikaze-senpai had many fans in the Sword Division.

“I wonder if I’m being treated as the great, evil demon king among all of Hoshikaze Hikaru’s fans?”

The corners of Kaguya-senpai’s lips were twitching hearing those words that were too much.

Hoshikaze-senpai’s team were being held properly in Hoshikaze-senpai’s arms, no need to mention Kimura-senpai, even Lotte and Kamiizumi-senpai, the atmosphere around them felt even more like a harem than Kazuki’s.

“Certainly I who kicked around everyone indiscriminately became the student council president, but it’s not like I have particularly fought against all of the powerful people in this academy you know? For example like the Ryuutaki sisters…”

Kaguya-senpai who had pulled herself together started to talk.

“Well, those girls don’t have any reason to announce their candidacy for something like becoming the Chief Student Council President though, isn’t that right?”

“―Ara? I wonder if all of you are talking about us by some chance?”

At that time the door of the auditorium was opening (giiii), coinciding with the appearance of a voice that had an impressive presence even in the silence.

Accompanied by the light from the outside at their back, someone was entering.

Just like speaking of the devil, Kaguya-senpai’s eyes opened wide in a great shock.

“Ryuutaki Miyabi-san and Ryuutaki Shinobu-san…”

It seemed they were most likely twins; their faces were like two peas in a pod.

With their soft wavy long hair and their high and slender stature, they had an aura of refined high-class ladies. Symmetrical with their gorgeous impressions, there was alert sharpness inside those eyes with long-slits.

And then in spite of the spitting image of their build, hairstyle, and looks, there was also contrast between them.

One side had black hair, while the other side had bright silver hair ―an elf.

“These two always challenged quests by forming a party with just the two of them you see. They left great track records, so it appears that they are considerably strong, however they never had a duel with anyone. They never tried to connect with anybody else, always being just the two of them. They are quite strange.”

Hoshikaze-senpai secretly whispered into Kazuki’s ear. Did they hear the whisper, the two of them were looking this way.

“The elf that is me is Miyabi, this is my twin little sister Shinobu. We are second year students of the Magic Division.”

Miyabi-senpai immediately was looking only at Kazuki. Kazuki was faltering unintentionally.

Miyabi-senpai walked gracefully closer to Kazuki’s position, the expressionless face that contained a sensuality somewhere was brought near Kazuki’s face and then she whispered into Kazuki’s ear.

It was a husky voice as if it was touching his ears.

“Aren’t you the one who killed the [Tentacle God] that brought forth the elves into this world?”

Kazuki was stunned involuntarily. Not to mention the existence of Naiarlatoteph, even the case about the human experiment that the former Headmaster Otonashi performed was not announced to the society. How could she know about that guy….

“For the sake of self-protection, I’m always putting information in order. After all, I had been targeted by a strange tentacle guy for a long time. It seems that guy wanted to use an elf like me, who had been raised up safely, as experimental material even more…. That’s why I have to give you my gratitude right?”

Right there Miyabi-senpai smiled widely.

“If it's fine for you, how about you stop being Kaguya’s lover and come to my place?”

Miyabi-senpai reached her hand and stroked Kazuki’s cheek with a manner of touching as if she was admiring a work of art.

“Onee-sama! …Keep the jokes in moderation…!”

From the direction of the younger twin with black hair―a flustered Shinobu-senpai was drawing closer to Miyabi-senpai while shaking her wavy hair and remonstrated that hand.

Both of them had the same face, but in contrast with Miyabi-senpai who had a calm, relaxed expression, Shinobu-senpai had a grim look that seemed like she was always putting strength into her eyebrows.

“What do you mean a joke? I’m serious you know, he is a benefactor that put down a sworn enemy of mine. There is no way I cannot feel overwhelmed with emotion in my heart from that.”

Floating a subtle smile, Miyabi-senpai was persistently directing a heated gaze toward Kazuki.

“Miyabi-san! …Miyabi-san and Shinobu-san don’t seem to have any interest toward something like the seat of Chief Student Council president, yet why are you here?”

Kaguya-senpai forced her way through to the middle as if to obstruct the way and inquired of Miyabi-senpai.

“True, I’m not interested at all. I think its fine even if this kind of academy ceased to function. It’s impossible to not feel a cold hate in this heart. Even the case about us not fighting anyone to this day is in order for us to not get endorsed to be something like student council president imprudently.”

“If that’s the case, then why?”

Kaguya-senpai hugged Kazuki’s shoulder and pulled him closer to her own direction while asking.

“You don’t have any composure, eh.” While teasing Kaguya-senpai’s behavior like that,

“We were just scouted you know? The one who is announcing their candidacy is the older brother gentleman of these brothers.”

The one who turned up in this place were not only the Ryuutaki sisters―it was only natural, because the team wouldn’t come into existence with just the two of them. A little late to the party, two male students entered the inside of the auditorium.

“Ta, Takasugi brothers!?” Kohaku shouted with an unpleasant expression.

The ones who appeared were male students of the Sword Division with solid build. With angular face and crew cut hair, they made a really obstinate face. Were they twins too, both of them were also the splitting image of each other.

“Student Council President Hikita Kohaku…With yours and former president Hayashizaki Kanae’s way of doing things, nothing had changed in the Sword Division! We are taking action in order to change the Sword Division with our own hands!”

“We will reform this academy that give maximum priority to the Magic Division in the true meaning! By us brothers!!”

They both shouted loudly out of nowhere.

“Takasugi Shūsui-senpai and Takasugi Harunari-senpai. Which is which brother, even this one couldn’t spot the difference. …They are a terribly radical [anti-Magic Division] advocates. It’s fine to say that they are already political activists even as students.”

Kohaku talked with a fed up face.

“Even Kohaku was a fairly radical anti-Magic Division wasn’t it? You even moved your plan to the next stage.”

“What I advocated was only something worthless if you compared it with these two! It’s like every day that they come to the student council room bringing their outrageous letter of opinion…more than half of this one’s anxiety is their fault…!”

Kohaku directed resentful eyes toward those two brothers. If she said until that far, then they might be that extreme.

As if they were responding to Kohaku’s stare, both of them made a tight fist and shouted their opinion even though no one asked them.

“The Magica Stigma’s tyranny couldn’t be allowed even more than this! For the sake of the country’s existence, it is necessary to bring Magica Stigma thoroughly under control! Not as humans but as weapons!”

“Our advocacy is thus, for Magica Stigma to be deprived of their basic human rights!”

Deprivation of human rights―Kazuki reflexively doubted his own ears. These guys, what were they saying?

“Listen well! The most important thing for a modern nation is the complete separation between the <people> and the <military force>! So that nothing but the country could carry out war, nothing but the country could wield the military power! Therefore soldiers have to be segregated from the general public, it is unacceptable for weapons to not be controlled and placed where the hand of ordinary persons couldn’t reach them!”

“Soldiers and weapons are only permitted to wield their power for the sake of the country! This rule makes the difference between crime and war! This is the greatest principle that makes the distinction between a primitive community and a modern nation! Do you understand!?”

I don’t understand. Kazuki was dumbfounded. Kohaku was saying “They are starting again…” and breathed a sigh.

“During the old era, the military power was namely science! The members of the nation worked hard to invent resources, due to their hard work the scientific military power was reinforced, and like that the weapons they created could be handled by anyone! The fence between the soldiers with weapon mastery and general public was erased! Consequently the government and the citizens could easily control the military power! However right now is different!”

“Summoning Magic cannot be handled by anyone other than the Magica Stigma! That risk should be considered more carefully by the government! When all the Magica Stigma rebel and bring forth a coup d’état, the government won’t have any means to resist! Even when they are bombed by nuclear weapon, these are the people who are able to laugh in the center of the blast like it was nothing!”

“Therefore, we will see to it that the treatment of Magica Stigma as [emotionless weapon] is carried out as thorough as possible without exception! The Magica Stigma has to be imprisoned in a quarantine facility and dyed completely with ideology education, all their blood relatives restrained as hostages! Like this, the new form of the military force in this present era can be regulated!”

“Turn your eyes beyond the sea! The foreign countries throw away their states as a modern country, reduced to a religious country! By giving the Magica Stigma favorable treatment, our country too is in the process of committing the same folly! The correction of direction that is finally being done now is still lukewarm! Too lukewarm I say! We are going to become the Chief Student Council of this academy and change the society little by little! The symbol of the Knight Academy has the power to achieve that much!”

“You bastards! Do you have any reason to fight!? Any motive that could stand in equal with our sublime ideology!!?”

Right there the two became silent. It seemed their long speech was over.

These guys…were they really serious in saying all that?

They didn’t have any human trust at all toward the Magica Stigma, consequently they weren’t going to treat Magica Stigma as human, if it was not like that then the nation wouldn’t hold true―in short it was such an irrational argument like that.

{Oi…Hayashizaki Kazuki. Absolutely don’t lose to these guys okay…}

Leme talked inside his head. Her tone of voice was oozing an obvious disdain.

“Wait a second, the tournament is nothing more than appeal time, after the fight there will be a vote right? If these people spread such claims around, there will be no way anyone from the Magic Division is going to vote for them, so even if they get the overall victory in the tournament there is no way they would be elected, isn’t that the case? …It’s futile already from the very beginning, isn’t it?”

Hoshikaze-senpai whispered absent-mindedly. ….It’s futile already from the very beginning she said, that was a really accurate expression.

“We can’t really know, you know. The vote from the Magic Division is going to be distributed among all of us here, but if the votes from the Sword Division are concentrated in a heap to them, then they might get elected. The Sword Division follows the doctrine of real strength after all, if these guys get the overall victory then that kind of concerning idea is…”

“Even if you say that they follow that doctrine of real strength however much, I don’t think even the Sword Division will have a thought until that far, though…”

Towards Kaguya-senpai’s apprehensions, Kohaku shook her head with a stiff expression.

“Fufufufufu. Interesting don’t you agree? What young revolutionaries these children are.”

Miyabi-senpai suddenly leaked out a laughing voice. Kaguya-senpai glared at her sternly.

“Even though you too are a Magica Stigma, you are supporting these people’s views?”

“The miserable [victim] of Japan’s government [Magica Stigma absolutism] are us. Rather it’s fine even if such thing like this kind of country is toppled over completely right from its roots. We as the elves have the right to wish for that. Isn’t it so, Hiakari-san.”

Miyabi-senpai slid her sight toward Koyuki who was an elf like her.

As if to oppose her, Koyuki gripped Kazuki’s sleeve tightly.

“Lamenting my own circumstances, peeving, begrudging someone else, I have already stopped doing all of those things. Because, there is a certain someone who found me. Someone who thought of me as precious.”

Miyabi-senpai opened her eyes wide slightly, and then she once again looked at Kazuki.

“Hayashizaki Kazuki. As I thought you are an interesting child. To do something like embracing an elf to this point, it makes me also want to try to be tamed just like this.”

“Nee-sama, please cut it out! …Besides…such things like an elf…”

“What are you sulking about? Well then, how about we take a seat, Shinobu.”

Toward Shinobu-senpai whose expression became increasingly grim, Miyabi-senpai pulled her arm along with gentle expression and took seats at a place separate from Kazuki and company. The Takasugi brothers were following along after them.

When they passed by in front of Kazuki and groups on their way, they opened their eyes wide and glared at Kazuki.

“We appreciate your opinion, but we are not able to approve that kind of view after all.”

Kazuki informed such toward the four eyes of those two fellows that were glaring at him.

“Is that so? If we are running counter with each other then it is until the fight! Don’t you know, in the present where alchemy has reduced the burden on earth’s resources, the wars that the human race caused are all carried out purely for ideological rivalries?”

“We will surely teach you how powerless that sword of yours which lack ideology!”

“That’s a cool exchange, but as swordsmen these guys are small fries, Nii-sama.”

Kanae whispered with a sigh. Takasugi brothers’ face became bright red and their appearance became filled with fury but―without saying anything back they sat behind the Ryuutaki sisters.

“Nii-sama, what the Takasugi brothers advocated is unpleasant, but what is troublesome might be those Ryuutaki sisters.”

That was, from the appearances those sisters were clad in, even Kazuki could somehow understand.

“With this there are four teams. It’s not like we cannot do a tournament with this number but, this is still very lonely isn’t it? I wonder if even more will come?”

Hoshikaze-senpai turned back toward the door entrance of the auditorium while shading her eyes with her hand on her forehead and playing the fool.

“Hya—hahha! If you wish for that then we are coming ze!”

“Uwa, don’t get so carried away!?” Hoshikaze-senpai’s eyes opened wide.

The character who opened the door wide while laughing wildly was not just one person. A large number of people were following along steadily behind her. They were a mix of Magic Division and Sword Division students, a group numbering several tens of students.

“Kaguya-chan yoo―, we won’t let you off from ignoring us and introducing yourself as this academy’s strongest zee! I’m going to teach you your place with this tournament for suree-!”

That was what the female Magic Division student that stood at the head of the group said.

“Right rightt―, anekii―”

At her side, a female student of the Magic Division said so with a child-like attitude.

“Mibu Akira-san and…Asamiya Anna-san…?”

“Hyuu―! Kaguya-chan, to remember the names of the likes of us, I’m happy ze!”

“Kaichou-sama is overly serious after all, she surely remembered something like the name of all the students―, anekii―”

The person that was called aneki was tall, while the other person that acted like a child was contrastively short, they were two people that when he looked at them, the word uneven was coming to mind.

“You know, something like memorizing all of your names….remember how many times I had given all of you a warning. You people are problem children after all.”

Kaguya-senpai, who was entangled with such people that acted so crudely, talked with a bitter face.

“Problem children?” Kazuki asked from the side.

It had been one and a half month since he entered the academy, the strictness of this national academy could be understood quickly from his experience. This academy was raising the knights who would become the cornerstone of the country’s defense after all, so something like allowing the students to backtalk couldn’t be done.

Do something like problem children exist in this academy?

“It’s not like they are delinquents who play hooky in class, or picking fights or committing crime inside the school, but…these girls are not participating at all in duels or quests. They are students who are non-cooperative with the school’s activities. The tall person is Mibu Akira-san, the short person is Asamiya Anna-san.”

“It’s just that we particularly want to pass our time in a normal high school activity zee. We have no obligation to do any quest, isn’t that rightt―. It’s so tiresome― you know―. Don’t you dare look at us like we are rotten apple just because we are not participating in something like that―”

“Right rightt―, anekii―. That way of talking, these honor students are so irritating huhh―”

Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai’s eyes contained a wildness somewhere, they constantly talked twistedly and floated a sarcastic expression. Even though they had pretty faces if they just smiled normally.

There was no obligation for duel or quest―that was because there still was a strong opposition from the society for students of the Knight Academy to be forced into real battle.

If a student graduated from the Knight Academy when they still had low-rank, it would have a major effect toward their career promotion as a knight. Even so if the student himself didn’t mind and rejected the quest and duel, even the academy itself couldn’t do anything strict.

It was a little too exaggerated to call them delinquents, but they really seemed like it.

“In the Knight Academy, even if you didn’t have any aspiration to become a knight, but as long as an <enigma> appeared on you, you don’t have any right of refusal and you are forced to enroll, so…this kind of students also come out as a result. Even so I want them to live their school life positively, that’s why sometimes I called them, but…”

Kaguya-senpai talked with a complicated face.

Kazuki reflexively looked down at his own enigma on the back of his left hand.

Once I too had experienced enrolling into this academy reluctantly.

Even inside his own heart, there was once a feeling of sympathy toward the words of Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai.

That was why he couldn’t act as if he could be careless until that far.

“It’s just, to that extent every one of these girls has low ranks but, their real strengths are still unknown.”

For Ryuutaki sisters, because they frequently raised results in quests, they were still known as powerful people. But in regards to that, it seemed Mibu-senpai and her group their real strength was completely unknown.

Mibu-senpai and her group was standing at the lead and chattered away as they pleased. But even at their backs a line of a large number of students were gradually forming. It looked like there were several tens of people from the Magic Division and the Sword Division there.

“Err, those students at the rear, are all of them also delinquents too?”

“…They are associating with those kinds of children but, it looks like some not so normal children are also mixing there. What in the world is their purpose here?”

Kaguya-senpai made a dubious face. Certainly it was unexpected for the participants to appear like this.

“Nii-sama.” Kanae too was getting near Kazuki’s ear.

“The swordsmen of the Sword Division that are gathering there, rather than saying that I know them as powerful people, it feels like they are quite a plain group aren't they? There is no rank-system in the Sword Division though, so I don’t really know their strength clearly.”

Because of the restriction that the students of the Sword Division couldn’t challenge the quest without being together with the student of Magic Division, even the rank system was not created.

For a long time until now, the Sword Division was treated only as the addition of the Magic Division.

Different with the Magic Division who was filled with just female students, male and female was mixing in the Sword Division. When he was surveying the crowd that were wearing the uniforms of the Sword Division, suddenly, Kazuki sensed a strong gaze being poured on him.

Kazuki too sent his eyes toward the owner of that gaze, his eyes met with the source.

That female student was looking at Kazuki, she was making a slightly shocked face.

Strong surprise could be felt, however her expression was as if it couldn’t be allowed to come to the surface and she was enduring her surprise.

This person was…. No, more precisely this person’s body build, and the impression of her muscle’s composition…. However she pretended not to notice how her eyes met with Kazuki and averted her eyes with a pretending face. Rather if she did something like that, that was, well, she was really surprised wasn’t it?

“Looks like all the candidates have gathered.”

Right then Liz Liza-sensei appeared on the stage holding a megaphone.

As always she was a very tiny, child-like sensei, even when they were looking up at the stage from below.

“Ehem. Ladies and gentlemen of the chosen trashes, the explanation of the battle election is going to be carried out. Take a seat, refrain from unintelligent idle talk and dig out the hole of your ears.”

Receiving the instructions from Liz Liza-sensei that was accompanied with pointless abusive language, Mibu-senpai and the others were taking a seat too.

“First…the Chief Student Council President battle election is a team tournament between four-person teams where each team consists of two students from the Magic Division and two students from the Sword Division. The common students will watch the manner in which you fight in this tournament and then voting will be carried out. This vote is going to be carried out at the student’s general meeting. Because of how important it is for the students to watch the match unobtrusively, we won’t invite audiences from outside of the school like in the inter-division opposition matches.”

The event this time was not a festival merrymaking event, to the end this was a strict and rigid situation.

“Originally the student general meeting was arranged for the middle of this month, but it has been postponed until the end of this month. The tournament is…the number of candidates is sixteen, sixteen teams. With this number of teams, the first round will have eight matches, the second round four matches, the semifinal two matches, and then the final…that is how this tournament shapes up.”

A white screen was lowering (sa―) behind Liz Liza-sensei, on the screen the tournament chart was projected with the overall champion at the top and sixteen branches below it.

To achieve the overall victory, a team must win through four matches in total.

Kazuki observed the seats. There were sixteen teams of four people; that was why there were 64 students gathered here in this place.

All of them were students that had seriously gathered with the intention of winning against Kaguya-senpai and Hoshikaze-senpai.

“The first round will be held on Wednesday in the third week of May, the second round is on Friday of the same week, with the weekend in between the semifinal would be on Monday in the week after that, and then the final will be conducted that Wednesday. The pace is three matches in a week, you got that? After that is the student’s general meeting. Starting from next month, the Knight Academy is going to move under the new Chief Student Council President.”

The auditorium became a little noisy. Within this schedule, an important meaning was hidden.

A pace of three times a week. It meant that there was nothing more than a day after the first match ended until the next match.

There was some individual difference, but if someone used their magic power until rock bottom he would need around two days for a full recovery. With a pace of advancing through three matches in a week, there was the possibility that they couldn’t recover their magic power.

To skillfully preserve their magic power while winning through their matches was a must.

“It’s not a one day tournament. How troublesome.”

…At his side Kaguya-senpai was whispering a frightening thing without hesitation.

If they did something that hardcore, people that fell into magic intoxication would appear one after another you know?

“The rule of the matches is following the same rule of duels. The venue will use each of the Magic Division and the Sword Division’s grounds, only the finals will be held at the fountain square.”

Because duels were conducted with 50 meters distance between the two opponents, a fairly large place was needed. That location had satisfied that condition, on top of that because of the need of installing audience seats around the arena, it was perfectly suited for the event this time.

“However, as a special measure for this time only, the Magic Division’s students are prohibited from using weapons, the same is true of the Sword Division’s students using magic swords―in short fighting only using the combination of weapon skill and common magic. This is for the sake of observing how the leader would control two different units. Each team’s leaders are obviously going to be assumed by the candidates. And Sacred Treasures too, for the sake of fairness, their use is prohibited.”

As he thought that kind of rule was really coming―

“…I, it’s a lie right…”

From the seat behind Kazuki, a voice in a stupor could be heard.

When he turned back, Kazuha-senpai’s face was going pale.

Whether Kazuki’s team was strong or weak was depending on whether these kind of special rules were attached or not.

Kazuki who specialized in kenjutsu despite being in Magic Division, Kazuha-senpai who could summon Futsunushi no Kami despite being in Sword Division, and then Kohaku who owned seven pieces of Sacred Treasures and was able to use them all skillfully without restriction…this team was assembled around irregular existences only. When the situation developed where Mio was the only one who could exhibit her real power like this, whether they could still win against the senpai’s teams in the end was…

Well, could it still be called fair with this kind of happenstance?

Hayashizaki Kazuki―had to fight not as the swordsman of the Magic Division, but as a pure Magica Stigma, that was how it turned out.

“The referees are the teachers, but a [Battle Election Control Committee] is going to be organized. That’s all. Is there any question?”

Toward Liz Liza-sensei’s question, the auditorium only returned a total silence (shi―n).

“In that case, the anticipated lottery is going to be carried out next. Rise up you trashes!”

“Hyahhaa―! It’s lottery zee―!” Mibu-senpai thrust up both her fist and yelled.

“What will we get what will we get, anekii―!” Asamiya-senpai too followed her with a loud voice.

What’s with them?

“Balls that have written numbers were placed inside this box, take one in turn. Those numbers are the match number. First is starting from Otonashi Kaguya, come!”

Liz Liza-sensei held up and showed the box with both hands, and then she called Kaguya-senpai.

Kaguya-senpai stood on the stage and took out a ball…”It’s two.” She said.

At the column of <Round 1 Match 2> in the tournament’s chart, letters of <Team Kaguya> and characters was surfacing.

Following her, Kazuki was called. When he took out a ball, its number was…”It’s one.”

At the column of <Round 1 Match 1>, <Team Kazuki> and his name were carved.

In other words he was going to fight the first round against a team that would pull out the same number as him, in the second matches the probability of him clashing early against Kaguya-senpai was high.

Following him, Hoshikaze-senpai stood on top of the stage, “Five huh” she informed.

Hoshikaze-senpai got the fifth match in the first round. If she was going to fight against Kazuki, they wouldn’t get the chance until the final.

When the teams of the Witch’s Mansion were done being called up, next was Mibu Akira-senpai who was called to the top of the stage.

“I’m six zee―! What a good-for-nothing number, hyahhaa―! Fuck you mee-n!”

With unclear tension, Mibu-senpai’s name was carved into the column of the sixth match. If by some chance Mibu-senpai won through the first round, it seemed she would fight against Hoshikaze–senpai at the second round.

Takasugi Shūsui was called next. He declared “Three!” with a loud voice.

If by some chance Kazuki defeated Kaguya-senpai, there was a chance he would face against Miyabi-senpai and her group in the semifinal.

Of course there might be a chance that other powerful people were still in hiding, but―the other teams were pulling out the lottery in succession, the remaining columns in the tournament chart were filled one after another.

“With this the explanation meeting is over. After this in the period until the matches begin, begin your own special training.”

Leaving behind those words in the end, Liz Liza-sensei exited the stage.

Just when the explanation meeting ended, Hoshikaze-senpai and Kazuha-senpai drew near Kazuki’s position.

“Hayashizaki-kun, I have something to discuss, is it fine?”

“Hayashizaki Kazuki! Th, there is something I want to discuss!”

After the two were looking at each other “Please, feel free” “N, no please you can go first” they became polite and started pushing their turn to each other.

During that interval where Kazuki was gazing at the two vacantly, the cell phone inside his pocket was vibrating.

“Please, you can start first.” Hoshikaze-senpai conceded her turn even further with pleasant behavior.

With how the net communication and foreign trade with countries overseas came to an end, the development unique to Japangalapagosization was happening again with cell phone. Under the new domestic platform, various enterprises and workshops were manufacturing and selling a great variety of model as they pleased.

Kazuki’s favorite model was not the so-called multi-purpose devicesmartphone, but the fixed button style devicegarakee that only stressed the telephone call and mailing function. Household account book application was installed in it, an item that was really housewife-like.

What he received on his cell phone was a mail from Liz Liza-sensei. So that students could accept the contact from the academy and quest counter anytime, all of the students contact addresses were known by the teachers.

{After this, come to the conference room at the academy’s main building. Secretly.}

It looked like the message was also sent to Kaguya-senpai at the same time.

“Hoshikaze-senpai, Kazuha-senpai, I have a little errand to do.”

“Understood. It’s fine, it’s fine. Then lend me your time around tonight at the Witch’s Mansion, ‘ka―y!”

“Then, then I will come around tomorrow, please…!”

Hoshikaze-senpai with a clear smiling face, and Kazuha-senpai with a voice that seemed to vanish, both of them saw off Kazuki who exited the auditorium.

Kaguya-senpai came along at his side, she linked her hand with Kazuki’s and grasped it tightly.

“Otouto-kun, you got the mail too didn’t you? Let’s go together-!”

Kazuki suddenly remembered the first time he met Kaguya-senpai, at that time she too suddenly linked her hand with his.

I wonder how much she saved myself who was just enrolling into this academy at that time with this kind and amiable personality. There was also the awkward situation where he fought Kaguya-senpai, but he felt really happy that he could get back his connection with her once more.

“What are you smiling about?” Kaguya-senpai came to ask with a gentle expression.

It’s nothing, like that he waved his hand and went out of the auditorium.

―If it was Kaguya-senpai however, she would want to take a detour on the way here.

“You are late, you up-and-coming trash and top class trash!”

The moment they stepped into the conference room, Liz Liza-sensei's jeers were hurled.

The one she meant as up-and-coming was me, while the top class was referring to Kaguya-senpai, was that what she meant?

“I really missed getting insulted like this by Liz Liza-senseii-. Liz Liza-sensei was the one in charge of me last year you know? She was a teacher that behaved with frightening looks and treating everyone with contempt because of her concern over her tiny body, but the truth is that she is a kind and cute and reliable teacher I love her♡”

“Even I know how Liz Liza-sensei is a kind teacher you know? I have received helps from her until now on several occasions.”

“…Stop saying such idiotic things and quickly sit.”

Liz Liza-sensei raised her eyebrows and yelled; Kazuki and Kaguya took the seats at the table side-by-side.

“As a former knight, Westwood-sensei is the teacher with the best track record in this academy. Certainly she has an appearance that is easy to get on with, but don’t forget to pay your respect to her.”

Headmaster Amasaki was also inside the room. Both teachers were facing Kazuki and Kaguya right from the front.

“This has really become such a suspicious affair.”

Headmaster Amasaki talked all of a sudden while leaning his body forward.

“What you meant as suspicious, is it about the battle election that will be held?”

“That’s right. I mean in our position, we planned to decide the Chief Student Council President with a really commonplace general election. But the newly appointed Board Chairman that just came, was against it, and it became like that in the end…”

Headmaster Amasaki made his old wrinkled face even more wrinkled, then he hit the table with his ferocious rage plain to see. …Scary!

“Until now there has been no interaction between the two divisions, so the Magic Division doesn’t know anything about the Sword Division, the Sword Division doesn’t know anything about the Magic Division. Because of that it is unproductive, even if we do something like a general election, so let’s conduct a tournament so we could see the strength and leadership as a knight, that guy gave such an opinion!”

“Isn’t that a really sound argument?” “That’s right isn’t it, that’s a sound argument isn’t it?”

Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai unintentionally matched their voice.

“Because it’s a sound argument it made me angry! Making such a sound argument grandly in front of the other teachers, I couldn’t kill that proposal no matter how much I tried! How dare he throw mud in my face even though he is just a new appointee!”

Oi, oi, what in the world are you saying, this frightening influential person.

“You know in my position, if I spread propaganda about how you defeated Otonashi Kaguya while holding an election, there is no doubt that you will get elected, then I thought of an ideal outcome where Otonashi Kaguya would support you at your side. Despite all of that, now the possibility that others students, who could care less, would get elected suddenly came to the fore!”

“No, for a teacher to do something like backing a specific student is unbecoming you know…”

Though his remark about [others student who could care less], as expected it was not really thoughtless words wasn’t it?

“Muu, so there was such an intention was it, to make me as the foil…”

Kaguya-senpai furrowed her eyebrows as much as she could; she also pouted her cheeks to the limit. Her dissatisfaction was demonstrated a lot on her face. It was Kaguya-senpai who was greatly indignant and furious.

“Errr…Kaguya-senpai, please don’t make an extremely strange face like that even though you have an extremely rare beauty.”

Kazuki soothed her from the side, but “Otouto-kun-!” Kaguya-senpai turned that face to Kazuki’s direction. She looked like a manju when seen right from the front. Her cheeks were soft after all so she could inflate her cheeks that much.

“I, I didn’t lose to Otouto-kun after all! When I lost my senses and fought Otouto-kun, it looked like Otouto-kun won, however if I am in the state where my reasoning is recovered and overflowing with intelligence, then I am the stronger side! I am still the senpai and Otouto-kun is my pupil!”

“About how senpai said that you were not in your senses at that time, does senpai really not remember about that fight?”

“I don’t remembeerr. I remember Otouto-kun with a cool face in a cute way, however you embraced me with the powerful arms of a boy and said [I love you] to me, other than that I don’t remember anythi―ng.”

“Senpai really remembered the important moment with pinpoint accuracy huh? Though I don’t particularly plan to withdraw.”

“That’s why! It’s no good for Otouto-kun to get carried away! I am the Onee-san still!”

“Ye, yes. Let’s fight fair and square in the tournament.”

Kazuki faced back to the teachers while poking Kaguya-senpai’s inflated cheeks repeatedly.

“…With that as the case, is there any problem by doing the tournament normally?”

“Fun, it might be okay for me to be the bad guy if you two said something like fair and square, but even for me, I don’t particularly mind if Otonashi Kaguya or Hoshikaze Hikaru became the Chief Student Council President. But…the new board chairman that was dispatched here from the government let out this kind of opinion, and then in response to that a great number of students announced their candidacy. Those who announced their candidacy were every one of the delinquent students of the Magic Division. Do you think those guys have the will to lead the new academy if they really become the Chief Student Council President? Do you think it’s not suspicious?”

Kazuki finally noticed what this shrewd new headmaster was apprehensive about.

It was wrong to have a prejudice against students because they were a delinquent, however….

When Kaguya-senpai too also reached the same thought as Kazuki, Headmaster Amasaki said.

“The newly appointed board chairman and, the students who suddenly announced their candidacy might be in collaboration with each other. For the purpose of backing a puppet student council president, that will move according to the new board chairman’s intentions. Consequently he would take possession of this academy. So you are concerned of that kind of risk, right?”

“That’s how it is.” Headmaster Amasaki nodded.

The new board chairman might be bribing the delinquent students. If the new board chairman and the Chief Student Council President were in cahoots with each other, then Headmaster Amasaki’s position would be in danger too. In short, the Knight Academy’s hegemony was being targetted.

“Not only the delinquent students, but the Takasugi brothers of the Sword Division also announced their candidacy.”

The content of what they were speaking was another matter, but those people had a strong will.

“The name of the new board chairman is Takasugi Takayoshi. …The father of those brothers.”

“…I see.” Kazuki reflexively made a sour face.

“The new Board Chairman Takasugi at first made the proposal to just make the winner of the tournament as the Chief Student Council President. We were objecting against that point and in the end it was shaped so voting will also be held after the tournament. Surely it is a good thing for all the students to be granted a chance. However this Knight Academy is not a normal academy. A strange conspiracy must not be allowed behind the cover of sound argument. It will be trouble if this important agency for the country is misappropriated like Headmaster Otonashi once did. …Ah, sorry.”

Kaguya-senpai felt completely desponded because her father was bad mouthed, Headmaster Amasaki glossed it over in fluster.

Until now the Knight Academy under the guidance of former Headmaster Otonashi gave preferential treatment toward the Magica Stigma, that action made its influence even until the current of the society and the setting up of the Knight Order.

The influence of the National Knight Academy couldn’t be made light off just because at most they were only children of an academy. The students who graduated this academy would form the only national defense organization of this country, the Knight Order, the members of the student council and the Rank A students were also promised an elite course in that organization.

If someone controlled the Knight Academy, it could be said that they controlled the future of the Knight Order.

It was such an important national agency, and that was why…the Knight Academy headmaster and the board chairman were nominated by appropriate people. The former Headmaster Otonashi too, originally he was a high ranking government official that commanded a secret human experimentation project under the government.

Headmaster Amasaki too had a tune of trying to appropriate the Knight Academy, however…if the aim of Headmaster Takasugi was to ride the current’s momentum of the recent public opinion and stir it toward the direction of [Magica Stigma’s human right deprivation], it was a really terrible thing.

“Possibly…Hayashizaki Kazuki, a lot of people are still half in doubt regarding your power, but there is also the possibility that someone wants to weaken your power and position by raising other candidates as obstacles. For the purpose of making you fail to become the Chief Student Council President.”

“You can’t mean…to do something like that intentionally for someone like me…”

“It’s not an exaggeration. Just like I, and Headmaster Otonashi in the past, people who are unable to stomach the existence of [the King of Magica Stigma] also exist. If I had to say more…to make an example from the old world, you are like a new weapon that is in the process of development. A nuclear weapon, something like that. The other Magic Advanced Countries that had sniffed about you through their spies, there might be such an existence of foreign countries like that who supported Board Chairman Takasugi. What I mean by suspicious is including the matter until that far. You, is there nothing suspicious that happened around you?”

“If we talk about suspicious matter, before this, there is only that attack from a strange person that stopped my heart.”

When Kazuki dropped that sentence so suddenly, the atmosphere of that place was freezing all of a sudden.

“Sorry but just now, what did you say? I don’t really get it.”

“Ah, no, before this, I was attacked by a suspicious woman wearing black completely from her head to toe, my heart got stopped, then I got resuscitated by Mio.”

“I, I never heard of that incident you know!? Did you report that case properly!?”

“…I completely forgot to report it. Because I strongly thought that the next time I encounter her again I will catch her completely and expose her true identity.”

“Are you an idiot!? Do you not understand your own value!? Far from being an obstacle in the battle election, they have already tried to assassinate you!!”

Kazuki was rather surprised at Headmaster Amasaki’s angry look.

…My own value. It was something that he himself didn’t understand, yet this person gave his recognition over it.

“Otouto-kun…why are you being that calm after something like that?”

Kaguya-senpai too sent a reproaching gaze right from his side.

“But even if I reported it to the Knight Order in the neighborhood of the Knight Academy, they won’t be able to come immediately anyway.”

Because there was the case that the students of the Knight Academy had been acting as the agent of the Knight Order through doing their job in the form of quests, the deployment of knight in the surrounding area of the Knight Academy was thin. They were foisting the lack of manpower to the academy.

“…It had really become very suspicious huh. Even these last few days there have been assault incidents against students in this Knight Academy. Both of these cases might have a connection.”

…Kazuki was attacked on the rare day he was going out was sniffed, that was why that assassin must be someone who was connected with the academy. Headmaster Amasaki had that kind of conjecture. Kazuki too also had some clue.

Even in the other cases where the students were assaulted, all of it happened outside of the range of the security cameras. The meticulous way the perpetrator worked with how they perfectly grasped the blind spots of the security cameras, it was impossible to achieve for someone unconnected with the academy, something like that.

Thereupon certainly these two cases might be connected.

However if that was the case, putting aside the objective of the assault on Kazuki, what seemed to be the objective in attacking other students? All of the victim students managed to escape safely. What kind of badness might be lurking inside these performances? Was that assassin really so incompetent to that degree?

“The battle election proposal due to the newly coming board chairman, the students with unknown strength that suddenly show willingness and announced their candidacy, the assassin that assaulted Hayashizaki Kazuki, the assault incident of three students…there are too many strange things happening in succession. All of these might be connected by one piece of string.”

Liz Liza-sensei compiled all of the suspiciousness and itemized them.

“Do we know anything of Board Chairman Takasugi’s personal history?”

When Kazuki inquired about the character in the middle of this upheaval, Headmaster Amasaki let out a huffing breath.

“Obviously I know. He is a man with deep connection with a political organization called <Will of Sword PartyKenshitou>. This Kenshitou is opposed to the preferential treatment of the Magica Stigma, they extended their influence by riding the decline of the Stigmata Absolutism faction and are rapidly making their advocacy more extreme.”

The advocacy that Takasugi brothers spewed out before was also perfectly matching with Kenshitou’s policy.

“We know what they are looking for at this battle election. But to go as far as attempting to assassinate Hayashizaki Kazuki…I doubt they are going that far for the battle election. The one that gained the most from killing Hayashizaki Kazuki are the foreign countries. Kenshitou might have a black connection with other Magic Advanced Country. But it’s not simple to understand something like this even if we investigate their background.”

Board Chairman Takasugi was behind the students who were suddenly announcing their candidacy, then there was Kenshitou behind Board Chairman Takasugi, and then behind their back there might be another Magic Advanced Country….

This was not a problem with a shallow origin.

If that was the case, it was not like he wanted to vindicate himself however, when he played a trick on that assassin and obtained information, it unexpectedly turned out to have a big significance.

“The assassin that came aiming for me used Chinese Kenpo. That’s why I think there is a high chance that she was originating from China.”

Hearing Kazuki’s words, the three people that were hanging their heads down spontaneously raised their heads with shocked face.

“…<Chūkadou> country huh?”

Chūkadou―the nearest of the Seven Magic Advanced Countries to Japan.

The country that was once called the People’s Republic of China, due to the arrival of this age of magic they encountered the object of their faith in the ancient time, the immortal mountain wizard of <Taoism>, the structure of their government changed from <communism> to <Taoism doctrine>, even the name of their country was replaced with Chūkadou.

However the teaching of Taoism became their political principle, even as a religious country their government was dyed with a powerful <Sinocentrism>, that China was the center of the world and all countries should be unified into China, such ideology was held as the religion that they were faithful to. They were said to be the most dangerous among the Magic Advanced Countries.

Beatrix said something about an unreasonable country that it wouldn’t be strange for that country to send an assassin for Kazuki.

Looking at it geographically and also the ideology, the foremost contender that was going to attempt something like this, there was nothing else other than Chūkadou.

“From the olden days Japan is said to be a [spy heaven], but…. There are a lot of Kenshitou’s politician that have the personal support of China, are you telling me those guys are the ones that caused this chain of events?”

Kaguya-senpai knitted her eyebrows in worry.

To say that Kenshitou and China had an illicit connection, and that the assault on Kazuki and this uproar for the battle election were tied together, was nothing more than just speculation that rose to the surface.

But when a concrete figure like China became visible, the weirdness was immediately increasing.

“This present state of affairs probably can be said that it came from the defeat of Naiarlatoteph and how the political influence of the former Headmaster Otonashi and his faction was falling. We might have opened a Pandora’s Box.”

Liz Liza-sensei talked with a complicated expression.

The former Headmaster Otonashi and his faction regarded the Stigmata as something absolute and he even performed human experimentation for the sake of creating even stronger Magica Stigma, but...at the same time they might also have become a deterrent against China. They were also included among those who led the diplomacy and the country’s defense until now.

The ones who caused this political chaos completely were none other than Kazuki and the others.

“It would be great if all of this was just needless anxiety. There are also a lot of parts that are just speculation. ...However if the situation is really like what we are thinking, no matter what happen you three must win through anyone in your way. Preventing the assassination of Hayashizaki Kazuki, protecting the seat of the Chief Student Council President, those are the current absolute objectives.”

Headmaster Amasaki talked with a grave tone of voice.

At this late hour, Kazuki finally felt that he was dragged into the middle of an affair so big that he couldn’t even imagine.

Which reminded him, even when he was enrolling into this academy, there was something that he asked to himself.

―Why, for what kind of purpose did he obtain this kind of power?

Right now, Kazuki’s stigmata was starting to gain even greater power and meaning, from what it was once before.

“Otouto-kun...for some reason you are looking very thoughtful?”

The time was already evening. While returning home to the Witch’s Mansion, Kaguya-senpai talked concernedly.

“Just because I have a special power, it’s fine to not get worked up even if I do something unreasonable you know―That’s the kind of face that you seem to make, as I thought, Otouto-kun is still too early to become something like a student council president. You still have some way to go, so I will protect Otouto-kun.”

Kaguya-senpai grasped Kazuki’s hand tightly. A gentle warmth…if he depended on senpai like this, maybe everything would become more comfortable. However Kazuki had known already, that even senpai had been continuously carrying a heavy burden alone until now in hardships.

“No, I too want to protect senpai.”

The answer he found at the fight from before. That was [the power in order to protect the important things].

Kazuki squeezed back Kaguya-senpai’s hand strongly, Kaguya-senpai took a long hard look at Kazuki.

“…Geez! Again with that coolly cute appearance! Just because you had become a little stronger you overreached yourself once more!!”

Kaguya-senpai waved around her hand that was connected with Kazuki as if she was getting embarrassed.

Part 2

“Welcome home, Hayashizaki-kun!” “So you’ve come home, My King!”

When he got back to his own room, inside Hoshikaze-senpai and Leme were playing pro-wrestling. Leme’s flying cross chop hit Hoshikaze-senpai’s nape of the neck, the counter-attack came and Hoshikaze-senpai caught both feet of the escaping Leme and dealt a giant swing.

Of course both of their bodies were protected by magic power, so it was only at the level of playing around with each other.

Kazuki reflexively got bewildered. Mio and the others frequently came to his room, that was why he always cleaned his room so that he wouldn’t be ashamed by anyone seeing them. Recently Kazuki’s room could be entered freely as long as you just knocked before.

However until now Hoshikaze-senpai had never came here before.

“It seems this person has something to consult.”

Leme that was flung away to the bed and got toppled over said that. Her tunic one piece was turned up inside out and her no-panty bottom was appearing and disappearing. …She was in a state where her clothes were created by magic power so he didn’t pay attention, but cover yourself with panties at least.

“Right, right, I have something to discuss man to man!”

The senpai that was looking at him face to face was wearing a bra-top and spats that had a mysterious feeling of luster. Those were high-performance fit-wears that were using alchemic material. It was glued to the skin closely, expanding and contracting matching with the body movement, the breathability was also good, it even regulated the temperature by reacting to the miniscule amount of magic power.

For some reason it seemed senpai was wearing this active underwear as her room-clothes.

However the problem of this underwear was that it made the line of the body perfectly stand out. It distinctly dug into the high leg line at her nether region, it also glued into the breast and bottom and just like that he could understand their shapes. It was colored with two exchanging color of deep blue and light blue, but it completely looked like a body paint to him.

He felt like a girl must not be allowed to come out in front of a man wearing this piece of clothes.

“Senpai said man to man, but senpai is not a man right? Besides senpai is…looking like that already.”

Kazuki averted his eyes slightly from Hoshikaze-senpai who had an innocent expression.

“Hmm? Well anyway sit, sit.”

Hoshikaze-senpai dropped her body on the bed with her legs wide open and she sat cross legged, then she urged Kazuki to sit right in front of her. To take that kind of posture with that appearance, how could he call her a man right from the front seeing her like that, he thought. But when Kazuki sat where she was indicating at, Leme came near Kazuki in a toddle.

“The truth is…she genuinely wants to conquer her man phobia. Because of that she is wishing to cooperate with you who is her buddy.”

“Conquering her man phobia…is it?”

Hoshikaze-senpai had a phobia of men. Despite the yearning as a prince that she received because of her androgynous beautiful face, the person in question herself was weak with men, even so she still longed for a man’s friendship. What a puzzling person.

“From now on the interaction with the Sword Division will increase drastically right? There are a lot of boys at the Sword Division, so I was thinking that I cannot keep being like this. Especially if I’m thinking of winning against Kaguya and become the Chief Student Council President after this!”

“It’s certainly like that huh. But senpai’s phobia of men, what kind of problem is that?”

After Hoshikaze-senpai took a deep breath, she abruptly took hold of Kazuki’s hand tightly.

Even though she talked as a mature prince, what he felt was a soft hand of a girl. Kazuki felt his heart beat a little faster.

On the other hand―the blood was drained from Hoshikaze-senpai’s face very quickly. In the blink of an eye, tears were amassing in senpai’s eye, and her cold fingertips were shaking.

“Sen, senpai, please don’t force yourself!”

He couldn’t bear to see her like this, Kazuki separated the hands by himself.

“But I don’t want you to misunderstand me, it’s not that I actually hate Hayashizaki-kun.”

“Of course I know that.”

“Talking while meeting face like this is fine for me. At first even that was scary for me, but in the time we were together I came to know that Hayashizaki-kun is a kind person then. I can keep my composure with my reasoning.”

Hoshikaze-senpai’s positivity level was―50. A good level where one could be said as a [good friend]. There was also the influence of her man phobia, but while doing sword practice together, their distance was shrinking little by little.

“Even so, things like touching and shortening the distance are still no good isn’t it?”

“Yes. A rugged man that look strong and their smell are scary. If just talking like this I can feel relieved that Hayashizaki-kun is a kind person, but when touching or the distance is too near, a fear is welling up somewhere deep inside me that is different from my reasoning….”

“Do I, really reek like a man that much? Though I think I’m not effeminate.”

“As expected when I touch you it really felt like you are a real boy. By the way when I consulted Kaguya, conversely Kaguya said [normally he is a kind younger boy, however sometimes there were times where he suddenly became forceful that made my chest tighten]. Keep this a secret okay?”

“She, she said that kind of thing…”

For Kazuki, Kaguya-senpai was someone that he felt the most conscious of as a [woman]. To think that Kaguya-senpai also became strongly conscious of him as a [man] in reality.

Thinking of how she kept treating him like a child…. A, anyway this was not the time!

“Well then, how does senpai plan to treat this?”

“I don’t know, but isn’t it fine if I simply get used to a boy, that’s what I thought. That’s why I want to consult you, however…I want to freeload in this room!”

“Freeloading, does senpai planned to stay here!? Though from the beginning we had been living under the same roof, but for a boy and girl to live together in this cramped room will create a problem.”

Certainly Mio, Lotte, and Koyuki also came here to play, but by no means they came here every night.

“There is no problem! By playing together with the two of us in this airtight space and chatting at night while sleeping, a deep friendship between men will be born, with that I think I will ride past this phobia of men for sure!”

For him to do something like passing a long time together with this innocent senpai who was wearing that kind of suggestive appearance, this side’s reasoning would be the one that became dangerous.

However…there was no one else that senpai could rely on.

“Understood, if that is really for senpai’s sake, then I will show the endurance as a swordsman!”

Hearing that declaration, Leme was making a pouting face at his side, she sent a telepathy to Kazuki.

{Recently, the King keep chasing out Leme immediately…even though it’s nice for Leme to be together with the King when it’s time to sleep. The Lemegetonfamily service is insufficient here…}

Sorry, Kazuki thought inside his heart to reply. Now that she talked about it, he didn’t think about Leme’s circumstances.

Leme materialized in this world using Kazuki’s magic power. That’s why when she was materialized she was at Kazuki’s side as much as possible, it seemed that sleeping together at night was good for her fuel consumption.

But when Mio and the others that came playing in this room, Leme took them into consideration and withdrew to Astrum.

If Hoshikaze-senpai was staying in this room for a long time, it would be a big problem as far as Leme was concerned.

{Well, it’s for the sake of harem so that’s fine though. This is a rare chance, so Leme will go to Futsunushi no Kami’s place.}

…Now that she mentioned it, what became of the relation between fellow Diva at the Astrum?

{Divas have this place called <Mythology DomainTerritory, the image is that Astrum is chaotic, but there is the feel of the divide of each Diva’s turf.. This Territory could be entered and exited freely by Diva with good relation, but Diva from other mythology cannot step their foot inside at all. In short generally all the Divas are staying fixed at their own Mythology}

Of course even inside the same Mythology, there was also antagonistic relationship like Thor and other from the Norse Mythology with Loki however.

{Solomon 72 Pillar are mutually connected strongly with each other, but Leme lost her memory so I am completely detached from them. Though thanks to the bond that you created, Leme is connected with those like Phoenix or Asmodeus. With Futsunushi no Kami too for the moment, Leme should be able to have a conversation with him. Leme was a little concerned with the trend of the Japanese Mythology, so Leme is going to ask that guy about various things. …After all Japanese Mythology is this country’s original mythology.}

When she conveyed until that point through telepathy to Kazuki, Leme was going “That’s how it is, see ya!” She was saying that by moving the mouth of her materialized body, thereafter that material body vanished with a puff and withdrew to the Astrum.

“Ehh, what’s with Leme-chan? Even though I thought we are going to play with three people.”

Hoshikaze-senpai who didn’t have the self-awareness that she was the one that chased out Leme looked disappointed.

As for Leme, rather than playing with three people, it was more important for Kazuki to be alone together with a girl.

“Anyway, let’s play together first! Let’s play a game, game!”

Hoshikaze-senpai sat on the bed once more with bouncing sound and took hold of the controller of the game that was in Kazuki’s room. It was the game system that he received to kill time when he was confined by Kohaku in the Sword Division.

Even now when Mio or Lotte came to play at Kazuki’s room they were competing together using this game system.

“The one who lose has to accept a punishment game!”

“Again with a thing that looked like something a high school boy will do…. What kind of thing will be done in the punishment game?”

The playful prince Hoshikaze-senpai looked a little mischievous and her eyes was twinkling brightly.

“The one who lose, will confess to the class’s idol Mio-chan!”

“That’s really just like high school boy ! …But let’s stop it, something like that.”

“Fufufu, you got cold feet~♪”

“Please don’t stir up someone like a high school boy. Doing something like a joke confession is just looking down on girls you know? Also doing that will make Mio extremely furious. Besides Hoshikaze-senpai have a different class with her right?”

Also Mio was not particularly an idol in the class.

“Mu. What a raging objection power…. Then the one who lose will rub Kaguya’s huge breast from behind and run immediately!”

Hoshikaze-senpai’s both hands were groping around in the air while saying that.

“Isn’t that just falling down to the level of elementary school boy’s prank!? Please just stop, that kind of thing only looks like harassment to girls. All of the things from just now are too vulgar.”

“Then how about the loser has to wear female clothing!?”

“Then the only one that would get embarrassed is just me isn’t it!? You will just look normal with that punishment, won’t you!?”

“What are you saying! Even I will get embarrassed with that!!”

“No, wait a second…. Then if senpai loses please wear a maid uniform!”

Kazuki proposed something that leaned heavily to his own tastes.

“Ma, maid-san you say? Wearing that clothes with a lot of frilly frill? This me?”

“Correct, for the whole day, senpai will provide a service as maid-san!”

Senpai was pondering very hard while making a wrinkle with her eyebrows.

“Th, that severeness is really fitting for the punishment game…. However a man will not go back on what he has said! In exchange, if you lose you will become a cute girl and take a commemorative photo with the setting as my girlfriend!”

Imagining the picture of himself wearing female clothing while acting coquettishly at the side of a good-looking guy like Hoshikaze-senpai, Kazuki felt a chill. As a man, he must not lose this game no matter what!

“Then we are going to play a fighting game for three rounds!” ”Understood, I accept your challenge!”

Both of them faced the screen of the three dimensional game that was projected by the Phantasmagoria and grasped the controllers at the simultaneously.

―With frightful momentum, Kazuki lost.

“…Pl, please wait a second! No matter what, using [Ride Lightning] is cheating isn’t it!? That cannot count as a victory!”

Using Baal’s magic, the electric signal running through Hoshikaze-senpai’s whole body was amplified, she beat down Kazuki mercilessly using the superhuman explosive power and reflex.

…Something like that, when senpai suddenly chanted the spell beside him, he was wondering what in the world was she doing.

“Hehehe, did we decide any rule that forbid the use of Summoning Magic? To use all methods available within the range of the rule and aim for victory, that’s what is called as a fight between men!”

Certainly they should have decided the rule beforehand.

“Hayashizaki-kun is my girlfriend~♪” Hoshikaze-senpai was singing a strange music.

Kazuki became seriously vexed hearing that.

“Then it’s fine for the first loss to go to this side, in exchange from now on there will be no more Summoning Magic!”

However, it must be remembered it was [Summoning Magic] only. Kazuki made such addition inside his heart.

“I got it, I accept your challenge!” With that senpai took up the controller triumphantly.

―With frightful momentum, Hoshikaze-senpai lost.

“Ha, Hayashizaki-kun, just now, you Foresighted the minute magical power produced from operating the game didn’t you!? You used the Extra Sense fully!”

“I got found out huh.”

Just like his experience when he played game with Lotte before, he couldn’t detect the premonition for the foresight from the digital movement of the game character on top of the projection screen.

However when a magician was going nuts in playing a game he was not used to, he would unconsciously invoke weak Enchant Aura from his determination to operate the game for even a little faster. That movement showed the user’s next action just slightly earlier even compared to the user’s actual body.

What Kazuki Foresighted was not the game screen, but the weak magic power of human’s body that was operating the game itself.

“How childish! You are really childish! To do something like using Hayashizaki-style’s secret technique just for a game!”

“Senpai too is my disciple, so right now senpai’s condition is quite the same as the swordsman of Hayashizaki-style. Senpai was defeated in a battle between swordsman and swordsman, that’s all there is to it…”

“What kind of reason is thatt―! I still haven’t learned the technique of Foresight! To show this kind of behavior, aren’t you ashamed as a swordsman!?”

“Hayashizaki-style is a kenjutsu for real battle…the most embarrassing thing is to get defeated. Fuffuffu.”

“What [Fuffuffu]! I didn’t think Hayashizaki-kun is a kid like that! Then it’s fine, the fight before is your win. But for the next it’s unacceptable! Reinforcing your senses is cheating!”

“Understood. I too was losing before because there was that [Ride Lightning].”

While twisting her mouth in a pout (muu―), Hoshikaze-senpai took the controller again.

And then the curtain of the destined third fight was opened.

The character that senpai was using from the beginning was a character that emphasized speed and equipped with Japanese katana.

On the other side the character that Kazuki used was a character whose strong point was long-range flame attack, a technical character that was weak in close-quarter combat even though this was a fighting game. The way to take distance was difficult

“Hayashizaki-kun’s character, she looked a little similar with Mio-chan isn’t it?”

“Now that senpai mentioned it, that’s true isn’t it, I didn’t notice.”

“By the way I chose a cool character that feels like it resembles you!”

“Is, is that so? …no, I got done in while I get embarrassed!”

“Yo―sh, my Hayashizaki-kun, finish off Mio-chan!”

“Uwa, my Mio got done in by me!”

The moment she was approached closely, this Mio (resembling character) was weak! Before he can even say ‘ah’ he was beaten to the ground with a combo, he couldn’t even make use of the character’s specialty of long range attack and fell into this situation completely!

“Mio! My Mio―!”

Kazuki unconsciously raised a scream.

“You called? Kazuki? What’s with that ‘my Mio’…ehehe♪”

The sound of the room’s door opening (gacha-) could be heard, Mio’s voice rang out.

For some reason it seemed the real article Mio really came. However he didn’t have any room left to be preoccupied with that kind of thing!

“Mio! You have to do your best even more!”

Kazuki raised his voice without averting his eyes from the screen till the end.

“Eh!? I’m always doing my best though!? I always work hard several times more than other people!”

“Aah, Mio the quack magician! You’re really weak at close-quarter combat!!”

“How mean, even though I’m always worrying about that!! Why do you say mean words like that!?”

“Mio, move even faster!”

“Eh!? U, understood! I’ll do my best so watch me, okay!”

Mio was starting to do a repeated side-step (shutan―shutan―) beside Kazuki with an amazing speed.

Kuh…he couldn’t concentrate when she was doing such interesting movement like that at the edge of his field of vision!

Right there Hoshikaze-senpai was torturing him severely without mercy.

“Go Hayashizaki-kun! Hack Mio-chan to pieces!!”

“Eeeh, I’m going to be chopped into pieces!?”

“Run, run away Mio―!”

Kazuki yelled desperately to Mio (resembling character) on the game screen.

“Understood!”

Mio was running away from the room in a flash.

She was really a person that was easily dragged into a mood. Though it seemed she vaguely understood the state of affairs in the middle.

In any case now he could concentrate on the game…!

His remaining life was only a little. However he was desperately guarding and evading for the time being and endured while amassing his special move’s gauge. In other words this was like chanting the spell of Summoning Magic.

“Running from place to place restlessly like that, how unmanly!”

At first Hoshikaze-senpai was playing the game using trial and error, but gradually she became able to produce the special moves smoothly, she was beginning to construct attack patterns in her own way. However that was a good thing for Kazuki. It was worthwhile to bring the battle into protracted war, conversely her movement was becoming easy to read!

…There! While running away from the attack, he released the firing of the super finishing move from long-range with the timing that he wouldn’t get anywhere else!

In the place where Hoshikaze-senpai’s character was stiffening, the attack hit magnificently.

The other side had a lot of moves, but in the power of one shot, Mio (resembling character) had the upper hand!

Aiming for a timing like this turned out to be a good decision, Kazuki had got the hang of the fighting game.

While persisting with barely no life left, Kazuki keep repeating it again and again. And then―

“I won! Maid uniform!!”

―Finally he raised his hands highly to the sky.

“What enthusiasm! Do you really want to put me into a maid uniform and embarrass me that much!?”

Hoshikaze-senpai collapsed on her back with her limbs spread-eagled. To move dynamically with that kind of appearance made her chest shake and tremble, becoming poison to his eyes so he wished she would stop.

“I just want to receive a service from senpai when senpai is in a feminine appearance, that’s all.”

“Muu~. It’s unfair at the first place, Hayashizaki-kun had already gotten used to playing this game!”

“This is my game after all so it’s only natural. But, wasn’t senpai the one that proposed to play this game?”

“It’s fine to go easy on me―!”

While rolling around, senpai kicked and struggled around with her hands and legs.

“If senpai thinks like that, then please don’t propose a punishment game that makes people don’t want to lose no matter what.”

“But, I thought the first win was a sure thing already if I use Ride Lightning, so…”

The prince was sulking. Such thinking was really petty, and yet that was still too naïve of her.

“Woow senpai, you are really beautiful you know? Fuffuffu.”

“That’s why, stop it with that [fuffuffu] already―. From a while ago I sensed S vibes from that smiling face of yours…”

Hoshikaze-senpai who wore the maid uniform on top of her fit-wear curled herself up with a boiling red face.

He felt something like [cute maid-san] from Mio and the others, but in the case of Hoshikaze-senpai, words like beautiful or lovely were suitable for her.

“A tall stature with crisp appearance, I can sense the [reliable maid-san] in senpai. No matter what kind of work, senpai looked like you will be able to do it skillfully and briskly.”

“Mou―, Hayashizaku-kun know about it already right―. That I am a really scatterbrained person.”

“There is that kind of gap too, doesn’t that make it even cuter?”

“Don’t say I’m cutee―!” Hoshikaze-senpai waved her arms up and down angrily.

“Well then, let’s go show this to everyone.”

“Eee! No way, no way, I’d get laughed by Kaguya!”

“It won’t be a punishment game if it is not seen by anyone. If it is the commemorative photo of me in the female clothing, then senpai too will show it around to everyone right?”

“I will absolutely do that, but. But…I want to be Hayashizaki-kun’s maid only…”

Senpai was looking at him with upturned eyes that were blurred with tears, she pleaded him with her hands lightly clasping her mouth and heartrending expression. Kazuki’s heart suddenly felt tight.

“Please, in exchange I will listen to one thing that you say no matter what it is, so…”

“I, it can’t be helped then. Then I won’t show senpai to anyone else, senpai is a maid only for me.”

“Thank you very much, Master! Master!!”

Hoshikaze-senpai that was overcame with emotion kneeled at Kazuki and called him Master repeatedly.

―Right there the door opened with a click and Koyuki showed her face.

Hoshikaze-senpai’s whole body stiffened with a twitch and she was petrified.

Koyuki’s knocking sound was reserved after all, so sometimes it was hard to hear.

Koyuki looked alternately at Hoshikaze-senpai who was kneeling in a maid uniform and Kazuki, “…coerced service…” with that her eyes turned extremely cold.

“Looks like you two are busy, I’m sorry. Stupid Kazuki.”

The door closed with a bang, Koyuki had departed completely.

“Wait Koyuki-chan! You misunderstand, at least listen to the reason!!”

Hoshikaze-senpai chased her in panic.

“Which reminds me, everyone frequently comes to this room freely.”

It seemed to have something like a secret maid-san was impossible no matter what.

“Senpai, are you seriously planning to stay over at this room?”

“I’m planning to do that, but is it a bother for you I wonder? Look, I brought my pillow here!”

She took off the maid uniform when it was the time to sleep and went back to her fit-wear, senpai carried out her favorite pillow and showed it to Kazuki.

“Then please sleep on the bed, Senpai. I’m going to sleep on the floor.”

“I am thankful for you to say that, but…the truth is when I was waiting for you, I was secretly sniffing out the smell of your futon however.”

“…What are you doing, that’s really embarrassing.”

“I am likewise not good with the smell of a boy. But different with directly sniffing a boy, when I sniffed your futon it was not scary but for some reason my heart started to beat fast and I couldn’t calm down…that’s why I’m sleeping on the floor!”

Hoshikaze-senpai fell over on the wooden flooring with a roll.

“But I wouldn’t be able to calm down if it’s only me that is sleeping on the bed while senpai sleep on the floor.”

“Then let’s sleep together in a huddle! If our bodies are not directly touching and get too close, I’ll be okay!”

If she said so, Kazuki too threw himself down at the floor energetically.

The floor felt hard, but for some reason it reminded him of his time as a child.

“Doing something like this really makes you feel what a close friend we are, right! That’s right, from now on I’ll call you Kazuki! Hehehe, Kazuki! Kazuki!”

While kicking around her legs on the floor, senpai faced him with a wide smiling face.

“Then, I’ll call senpai as Hikaru-senpai, okay?”

If senpai was seeking for that kind of friendship, then Kazuki too had to answer that feeling of hers.

“Uu―n, you also don’t need to call me senpai. But you care about that kind of thing, so it’s fine!”

When Kazuki turned off the room’s electricity, senpai’s tension was raising even further.

“Kazuki, who do you like the most among the girls in the Witch’s Mansion?”

“W, what are you saying out of nowhere? Is this the night of school trip?”

“Come on, say it―, we are fellow men so it’s fine right―. I’ll keep it a secret from everyone―. Hey, say it―”

“I said it already that Hikaru-senpai is not a man!”

Part 3

Early morning, Kazuki and Hoshikaze-senpai woke up at completely the same time.

Their eyes met with a blink, senpai was laughing weirdly “Ahaha”.

“Morning, Kazuki. …Ahaha, we have to change for the practice.”

She stood up while smiling with a big grin, then senpai took off her spats smoothly.

The young and lustrous bottom of a girl that was radiantly white flew into his eyes from point-blank range.

Senpai was half-asleep. This too sudden development was impossible to Foresight even for Kazuki.

“Se, senpai!” He let out a loud voice after reflexively averting his eyes. However he noticed that this was still the time where everyone else was still asleep in the other rooms so Kazuki dropped his volume.

“…Please change in your own room, Hikaru-senpai’s clothes are not here after all…”

“Eeeh? Now that you say it, here is my room yet why is Kazuki here?”

“This is my room you know…!”

He couldn’t even chase out Hikaru-senpai who had a man phobia forcefully, Kazuki accosted her with just his voice.

The rustling sounds of bra-tops being taken off was reaching the ears of Kazuki who was averting his eyes even further.

It was continuing, the sounds of the rustling clothes and the sound of searching in a drawer.

When he spontaneously directed his eyes to the sound’s direction, Hoshikaze-senpai was wearing Kazuki’s trunks.

“Senpai, please don’t wear my pants!!”

“Sorry, Kazuki…. I showed you something dirty.”

“Dirty?”

“My ass…”

“No, it was beautiful though. It was very glossy.”

What’s with this conversation?

“By any chance, are you tired because you accompanied me the whole night yesterday?”

Hikaru-senpai who changed into gym uniform for training said that in introspection mood while walking in the corridor.

“There is no way it’s like that. Playing and making a racket with senpai was fun after all.”

“Really!? I’m glad~, because that was my first time to make merry with a friend of the same gender.”

“I said we are not the same gender already. Are you saying that purposely to make me tsukkomi?”

“Ahaha. But as expected, we really look like the same gender when there is no hesitation between us like this.”

Hoshikaze-senpai might had been starved for a relation that could be called friendship for a long time.

The girls that yearned for her as the prince were a little different from friend.

{…But it’s quite concerning how you haven’t obtained the key from her.}

Inside Kazuki’s head, Leme was coming with telepathy.

Had she came back from Futsunushi no Kami’s place? She was not at the place of Futsunushi no Kami for that long, however Kazuki was completely ignorant of whatever Leme was doing in Astrum.

When Leme was not materializing in this world, she had no connection with other Diva and she might be all alone by herself in Astrum for a long time. When he thought of that, a feeling that he must be more proactive toward girls was sprouting inside even Kazuki.

Hoshikaze Hikaru―54. Regardless of the enjoyable time they spent from last night, the range of increase of the positivity level of senpai who was holding a man phobia in her heart was slow.

{This number might be the limit of the good mood between the same genders from a close friendship.}

Kazuki’s expression became clouded hearing Leme’s words. When he saw Hikaru-senpai who was playing happily, a feeling of wanting to give senpai a good time even more as a friend was welling up inside him.

Was that pointless however? The bond that Leme was looking for, was it pointless if it was friendship….

Kazuki and Hiakru-senpai went out to the courtyard like that. The fresh air of the dawn made his chest felt a little light from the cloudy feeling inside. In the courtyard that was still dark, a figure of a person was waiting.

“…Hayashizaki, that, I also have something to consult so I was waiting.”

“Kazuha-senpai.”

Now that he thought again, Kazuha-senpai too said before that she had something to talk about.

“So, what did senpai want to talk about?”

For the moment, Kazuki took a little distance from Hikaru-senpai so their talk couldn’t be heard and asked Kazuha-senpai.

“You know…until now I said a lot of unpleasant things about you but, no, I actually don’t like you but…”

While looking down and grumbling, Kazuha-senpai begin the preface of what she wanted to talk about. However the positivity level from here was 29. It was by no means high, but the truth was that she didn’t hate him deep inside.

“But I respect you honestly as a swordsman! That’s why actually I too, want to learn kenjutsu from you!”

“We are in the same team anyway, naturally I don’t mind. But is it okay for senpai with me?”

“At first I was trying to get Kohaku to teach me…but that person is not good whether in teaching something or going easy on someone, she was suddenly doing a real battle method and saying things like [I’m sorry] or [Forgive me] while slashing at me earnestly with her full power…I, it was scary. I saw a killing machine.”

“She doesn’t have any ill will and is clumsy but, that will only make senpai lose confidence won’t it?”

“I think you are still better compared to that killing machine! Better, I mean…when you taught me before it was vexing but, what you said was accurate! You are fine!!”

Had she already got a concrete result? Kazuha-senpai raised her voice in excited mood.

“Also there is also this feeling of playing an active role in the battle election and looking triumphantly to those guys at the Sword Division. At first I thought it’s fine if I make a striking display with Futsunushi no Kami’s power, but the rule forbid it so…if it keeps like this I will be made fun of by everybody…”

Kazuha-senpai who loved swords and made a contract with a Diva of sword, her own skills in kenjutsu was immature, so it seemed she was made fun of in the Sword Division which held the doctrine of real strength.

In this battle election that was to be held in front of the students of the entire school, it was a chance to be triumphant over everybody.

…Kazuha-senpai kept saying things like Kazuki was an enemy of women, but Kazuki himself didn’t dislike this senpai. Kazuha-senpai loved swords above all, she was trying to crawl up from the very bottom.

Rather the one who could get along with him the best, by some chance it might be this girl.

“Hikaru-senpai, is it okay for this senpai too to join with our practice?”

Kazuki called out to Hikaru-senpai who was doing calisthenics early in the place slightly separated from them.

Hikaru-senpai sent a bright smile of a prince to this direction. She looked dazzling with the morning sun as her background.

“Of course, I don’t mind at all. Welcome.”

Kazuha-senpai was staring fixedly toward that smiling face.

“Hayashizaki Kazuki. …That person, she is just too cool, somehow I feel like shrinking in front of her though.”

“But, Hikaru-senpai too because of that coolness has very few friends. That’s why don’t mind her appearance, please think of her as a normal girl and become her friend.”

“I, is that so!? She is in [solitude] like me!?”

Kazuha-senpai stared at Hikaru-senpai with bright eyes that was filled with affinity.

“I am Hoshikaze Hikaru. Best regards.”

“I, I am Tsukahara Kazuha! Please take care of me!”

Both of them approached each other and grasped each other's hands tightly.

Translator's Notes and References

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