Volume 4 Short Story – Angie’s Day

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This happened when Leon was studying abroad. The academy underwent a massive change.

“There’s far few students than I remember.”

The one muttering under her breath was the newly-minted second grader, Angie. Countless noble houses had been purged since the war with Fanoss. Some houses were allied with the enemy, whilst others opportunistically sat on the fence even though the kingdom was in a state of emergency. The current situation came as a result of demoting or stripping such households of their titles. On top of that, the academy banned all personal servants and hence there were no longer any traces of the once numerous demihuman servants that had once roamed these halls. It felt like the academy had suddenly become a whole lot emptier. All the female students who’d once audaciously brought along demihuman slaves, were now discontentedly complaining to their friends.

“What do they mean, we aren’t allowed to bring along servants anymore!?”

“Isn’t it crazy? They even banned us from having servants at all!”

“They’re the ones in the wrong for abolishing such a long-standing tradition!”

As Angie walked past the bench in the courtyard, she overheard three female students complaining about the academy’s new policies. However, as soon as they were discovered by Angie, they quickly got up and ran away. Seeing their behaviour only made Angie’s head hurt.

“—I guess it won’t be easy for everyone to change their mindsets.”

The preferential treatment for women was a problem which the kingdom had always turned a blind eye to. It was effective for keeping land-owning nobles on a leash, which was why the rule hadn’t been changed until now. However, during the recent war with Fanoss, it had turned into a rope used to strangle the kingdom itself. Even if one were to try to take measures against it, it wasn’t easy to change such long-standing traditions.

Once she passed through the courtyard and entered the academy building, this time around, Angie overheard the male students talking.

“I was told to host a tea party, but should I really even bother?”

Until now, the boys were the ones calling out to the girls, but the situation had changed. Now, the boys were in the position of being the ones who could afford to sit back and wait for invitations. But just like with the girls, the boys were also confused by the sudden change in circumstances.

“Don’t be a chicken. There’s no longer any need to host some crap like a tea party. R-Right? T-There won’t be any problems, right?”

Even the boy who wasn’t hosting a tea party, had a look of worry about him. The other boy clutched his head.

“Sh*t! What should we do!?”

Angie felt a sense of incongruence whilst watching the boys who were confused after being suddenly thrust into a situation where they were courted by girls.

(W-Well, they’ll eventually get used to it with time. The real problem here is the girls.)

Even now, there were many girls who were unable to accept reality. They were stuck in the mindset of “Obviously the boys should be the ones doing the courting”. That was the current awkward state of affairs at the academy.

“I wish there was someone around who could set an example.”

Angie turned her thoughts back towards Leon who was currently studying abroad.

“It would have been encouraging to have him around.”

But the problem lay in the fact he was the kingdom’s hero. There was also the problem of Leon being unable to take a cold attitude towards girls. Although in her head, Angie was thinking, “It would’ve been really helpful if he could serve as a rolemodel for everyone else”.

“Oops. I can’t fall back into a habit of relying on Leon for everything. If I want to become someone he can rely on, I need to prove my abilities by resolving this myself.”

Angie is the daughter of a Duke household. She’s one of the students’ representatives and hence, she couldn’t act like this had nothing to do with her. As she was pondering whether there was some kind of solution to all these problems, she noticed Cleare who appeared to be attentively watching something.

“Cleare, what are you doing in a place like this?”

When Angie called out to her, for some reason, Cleare’s blue lens shifted away from her as if there were something she was trying to hide.

“I-I’m just running a little experiment.”

“An experiment?”

“Y-Yep. It’s an experiment to make people get along with each other, or like, an experiment to make more friends! You know how people say the nobles can’t get along with the commoner students? I just thought it’d be nice if they could all get along with each other~”

Cleare tried to make excuses, but unfortunately for her, she’d perked Angie’s interest.

“That’s nice. It’s one of those things that I’ve been trying to fix for a long time. What ideas did you come up with?”

“Ohohohoho—I’m still in the middle of the experiment right now so there isn’t anything I can tell you.”

“I see, that’s a shame. Please let me know if you come up with any good ideas.”

At that moment, someone called out to Angie who had just finished talking with Cleare.

“U-Umm… Lady Angelica!”

When she turned around, she found one of her former followers. This girl used to be in the higher class, but now that her household had been demoted, she had become a general class student. Internally, Angie was feeling rather exasperated.

(This again?)

“What’s the matter?”

That female student pleaded to Angelica.

“Please save my household!”

“I’m just a student at this academy. I don’t have the power to save your household.”

This female student’s household was stripped of its title because it didn’t send reinforcements during the kingdom’s crisis. Their territory was confiscated, and now they’d been demoted to mere knights. Once again, during the time of her crisis, Angie was betrayed by all her followers.

(Don’t lament my lack of sympathy.)

While it was sad to learn that she only had traitors by her side, Angie couldn’t afford to waste time moping. However, the female student clung onto her.

“I-I beg you! If it’s for Lady Angelica, Count Bartfort would be willing to lend a hand. That person will probably be able to save my—”

But the female student was unable to say any more. After all, Angie blocked her mouth and grabbed her chin.

“If you’re thinking of using Leon for this, then I suggest you give up now.”

After saying that line and releasing her grip, the former follower girl ran away. Angie pondered to herself while watching her former follower retreat.

(Only until recently, they’d considered Leon a nuisance, yet now they want to take advantage of his name? It seems like Leon made the right choice to go study abroad.)

As Angie remained wary of those who wanted to approach Leon, Cleare who had watched the entire sequence of events, came out to talk to her.

“Shall I dispose of her?”

Cleare’s proposal, which was uttered in a cutesy voice, only had the effect of making Angie’s head hurt.

“Don’t.”

(Geez, why do these lot always have to be so radical?)

While remaining exasperated at Cleare who was easily able to propose something like disposal of humans, Angie thought ahead to Leon’s eventual return.

(Leon will be studying abroad for a year. I want to improve the situation at the academy as much as I can by the time he comes back.)

Angie continued to make various plans for Leon’s sake.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep