After parting with Kanna Temuraine Theodor, I immediately headed to the cafeteria.
For reference, the cafeteria is not in the D-shaped main building, but in a separate building away from it.
The Royal Academy has many buildings besides the main one and dormitory.
I'll probably have occasion to visit the other buildings someday.
The inside of the cafeteria is good because it's a system where you can choose and select what you want to eat like a buffet, so you can eat as much as you want of what you want.
Otherwise, a lot of food would be left over.
For reference, Victoria had already eaten lunch and left the cafeteria.
So today I'm eating alone.
As I'm sitting in an appropriately empty seat and eating, I feel people's gazes. Not just one or two, but many.
I guess it's because I'm the person who was advertised heavily in the media.
I also saw the broadcasts and newspapers through the harvesters. For reference, there are not only TVs but also radios for broadcasting.
There, I was broadcast as a special superhuman who can heal people. It also came out that a person who has been healed once cannot be healed again, and that people who were on the brink of death have their skin dyed blue.
The blue skin was even described as a defect. When I was watching the broadcast through harvesters or around the time I healed Aurora, I wondered if it was okay to call it a defect, but now I know the reason.
They deliberately did that to remove religious overtones.
A group called the Purple Twilight Association has explosively increased in number, starting from the outskirts of Bern City.
Not only do most of the harvesters I created in Bern City that day belong to it, but people whose lives were saved there have also joined.
It's close to a charity organization now, but it would be troublesome if such a thing turns into a pseudo-religion under the guise of religion.
Even more so as phenomena that could be called miracles exist in a visible form.
I understand why they tried to balance it by striking me down, since it could be attached to their daughter.
If there's one complaint, it's that the Purple Twilight Association is operating properly.
Yes. It's properly functioning as a charity organization.
Centered around harvesters, they're literally performing charitable acts, and too many people are living new lives.
Weren't people supposed to be more greedy?
Or are they still intoxicated by the act of doing good deeds?
When reality sets in and the intoxication wears off, do they plan to start doing bad things as they please from then on?
I hope that comes as soon as possible.
They've gained powerful strength to hit others.
They've gained excellent brains to deceive others.
And some have even acquired special superpowers.
Their egos should become inflated, they should deal with those who hinder them with violence, and become arrogant.
Is it because it's only been a few months?
I look forward to seeing how they'll change selfishly when the heat cools down and cold reality hits.
There's plenty of time.
I left my bowl and came out. Yesterday I tried to clean up the bowl, but here it seems you just leave the empty bowl and they clean it up themselves.
I expected a more luxurious place because it's a gaslamp fantasy, but it's more frugal than I thought. Rather, the Belle Époque era in the history of faded memories was more luxurious.
Well, that wasn't a world where monster-sized creatures using magic roamed around.
Thinking such thoughts, I leave the cafeteria and return to the classroom.
* * *
Afternoon.
The class ended with the announcement that there would be a magic practice class tomorrow.
I want to say please use techniques that anyone can use, but here everyone can use magic.
If it's a flame about the size of a cigarette lighter, anyone can use it with just a little practice. Rather, it's so natural that it's close to the concept of a human physical function like muscle strength.
From a social perspective, magicians are in a special position similar to a combination of scholars and athletes.
In other words, it means it's a subject similar to physical training.
Of course, there's separate physical training.
The reason I know this?
Among the people I made into harvesters, there was someone who graduated from the Royal Academy.
The center of Bern City was a place where many elites gathered, and among them were people of noble birth.
And the Royal Academy is not just a place for nobles.
Famous people themselves or children of famous people also enter. Victoria and I fall into this category. So there are quite a few non-noble people.
Although it's the memory of someone who has already graduated, at that time there were children of famous musicians or CEOs of large companies.
It's a method to absorb highly capable people into the upper class. And it's also a way to keep such people.
It's smart. Aren't there many places that fail because they can't give rewards according to performance?
Reward is another word for future. Little reward means there's no future. Isn't it natural to leave then?
It's much easier and cheaper to create a mental prison and stick them in there instead of giving rewards, so many people do that.
Anyway.
"Go make some friends."
"Belle, you're sounding like a mother!"
On the way back after class ended. I said that, remembering Victoria who ate alone without approaching anyone while I was meeting Theodor.
I pointed at the school building with my finger on the way back to the dormitory.
"That place is a space for creating connections. If you came, you should make them."
It's good to gather with similar people, and it's also good to enter a large faction and secure a position.
That must be the purpose of this school. Groups formed at a young age are surprisingly solid.
"I know that, but..."
"You hardly had any friends at the Clockwork Knight School either."
Her gaze that was looking ahead suddenly flew and stuck on me.
"Hey, how do you know that?"
Victoria's voice lowered. She really doesn't know.
"Beatrice was worried. She said since you're not sociable like Morris, she wondered if you could even properly catch a husband candidate somewhere."
Victoria covered her face with both hands.
"No."
She tried to say something but couldn't continue.
"No. Putting aside how Mom knows that, why do you know it?"
"While chatting during meal preparation, such stories came up. Victoria is the only common topic Beatrice and I can talk about, right?"
"This is driving me crazy."
Victoria lowered her hands and made an expression like she was dying from being mercilessly stabbed in a sore spot.
"Did you even cook at our house?"
"I made it the day before Morris came. It was an opportunity to learn about this world's ingredients."
I know cooking methods, but I didn't know the ingredients well.
Since I'm not a chef, it's impossible for me to make food with ingredients I've only eaten once or twice. But if there are known ingredients and recipes, I know how to make food, so I can do it as is.
That's why the meal I first gave to Soo-oh failed. Yes.
Among the memories gained from the first world, there was also a chef, so I confidently cooked thinking I could make delicious food, but I ruined it all.
So I directly felt through my body that having memories doesn't mean I can do well.
Fortunately, Soo-oh ate it well.
"What have you been doing at our house?"
"Raising Victoria?"
"Was I the one being raised?"
She has a blank expression as if her mind has gone out of shock from realizing the shocking truth.
But I think there's no need to worry much about sociability. Although Victoria herself thinks she's not sociable because she's timid.
Someone who's not afraid to speak to others when necessary is not called timid.
In the first place, if she were a timid person, she wouldn't have escaped from that prison and would have turned into a Sahaggin. She's just not interested in things she's not interested in.
Click
Upon arriving at the room, Victoria took out the key from her pocket, opened the door, and went inside.
"That was the most shocking story I've heard so far. So?"
"What?"
"It seemed like someone high-ranking took you away earlier, you didn't get into any trouble, did you?"
She looks at me with a worried expression.
"Victoria seems to have forgotten what I am."
"Are you a monster or a classmate acting like a mother? Pick one."
Victoria makes a sullen expression.
"I've never acted like a mother. If you feel that way, why don't you check your own lifestyle?"
"That point is what's mother-like. What, are you changing the subject?"
I shook my head as I didn't particularly intend to change the subject.
"Kanna Temuraine Theodor. She didn't call me to be hostile. She said she would lend her name if anything happens."
"Isn't there some ulterior motive there?"
She harbors a natural doubt. It's clear that there's actually some intention.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"If she wishes to make a contract, I'll just do it."
"Oh, when you went to the royal palace, didn't you receive any restrictions or anything like that?"
Victoria asks in a lowered voice. I wonder if it's something that needs to be asked so cautiously, but the royal palace itself is a place that needs to be treated cautiously. This is probably the right way to do it.
"No. There weren't any."
It seems they only sought me out to save Aurora. From beginning to end, they moved for her sake.
The problem is that I don't understand why they keep me around after that.
They expressed their gratitude, and after filming a video a few days later saying they would film, there was no interference.
Even when going to the Royal Academy, I was just transported directly like luggage.
At first, I thought they were storing me in the castle to use me in the future, but for that, they're leaving me too freely. The royals frequently visit Aurora, so they shouldn't be too busy to meet me.
It'll work out somehow.
"You don't even know when you'll come out?"
"I don't know."
"But it's the royal family, so there shouldn't be any strange things happening..."
I didn't say that it's quite gloomy. A monarch's cruelty is a virtue. If I turn that into a harvester, how much warmth would come in?
If they neglect me, that's fine as it is.
When they need me. It's enough if I'm there at that moment.
Since I don't know if this neglect is real neglect, or surveillance disguised as neglect, I plan to live while being cautious for the time being.
A vending machine lacking subjectivity.
Once you use a good tool, it's hard to go back to life without it.
"Don't worry. Rather, I'm worried about Victoria. Wake up early."
"I thought while running today, I don't need to wash, I can just use my ability. In other words, couldn't I sleep a little more?"
Victoria turned her head away from my words, then suddenly looked back at me and floated water droplets in her hand.
Superpowers are good if used well, but.
"Wake up early."
"Hmph..."
She did something even Soo-oh didn't do, so I put my hand on her head and stroked it. She should be a little embarrassed.