"Clatter...…"
The resplendent, gilded doors slowly opened. Anne stretched lazily, then walked in with a spring in her step.
"Finally finished dealing with all the administrative work. Now I can spare some time to keep reading."
"Anne, don't you need to review anything?"
Guleya, who was following beside Anne, couldn't help but remind her when she saw how energetic she looked.
"The practical exam is coming up soon…"
"Ah, no need to worry. Besides, I'm not even participating in this practical exercise. Aren't you the same, Guleya?"
"Uh..."
Hearing Anne's question, a trace of awkwardness appeared on Guleya's face. It had to be said that following Duanmu Huai around had allowed both girls to grow quite a bit. Anne didn't even need to mention it—before meeting Duanmu Huai, she was already the number one mage in Manaria, and she was basically exempt from the academy's practical exams every year.
The reason was simple: once Anne took action, the other students were essentially guaranteed a free win. There was nothing left to practice.
Guleya was relatively better off, but this year she, like Anne, had also been placed on the exemption list. The reason was her dragon roar—this ability was not only terrifying, but also extremely versatile. On top of that, the number of battles the two of them had experienced outside was several times greater than what Manaria students ever faced, so naturally there was no need to come back and bully children.
"When the knight returns this time, I'm planning to talk to him about letting some students participate in the Inquisition's operations. It would broaden their horizons, help them gain experience, and let them understand things better, right? Seth has a Mage Guard, after all. I think we could set something like that up too."
As the princess of Manaria, Anne naturally took Seth as her benchmark. Even though she felt Seth's system and magical strength were just so-so, that didn't mean Anne didn't intend to show off Manaria's national power.
"What about you, Guleya?"
"I… think things are fine as they are."
Hearing Anne's question, Guleya curled her body slightly and replied in a low voice. Seeing her like this, Anne frowned.
"Guleya, that won't do. I'll only say this here, but you also need to cultivate some trusted people of your own. Otherwise, when you become Queen of Regnis in the future, if you don't even have anyone you can trust, it'll be very difficult."
At this point, Anne lowered her voice.
"And you wouldn't want problems to arise between the knight and Regnis, right?"
As a princess of a nation, Anne was politically sensitive enough. She naturally understood what her friend was worried about. In fact, Anne's thinking wasn't wrong—every king needed to rely on their own core group to govern the country. She herself also had subordinates and ministers loyal to her, which was why Anne wanted to bring some of them into the Inquisition to help out. On one hand, it would strengthen the relationship between the Inquisition and Manaria; on the other hand, if everyone had fought together before, wouldn't their bonds naturally grow deeper?
As for what kind of "guns" they carried—that was another matter.
"But… the knight doesn't like other races…"
Guleya spoke timidly, while Anne shook her head.
"This isn't about the knight's personal likes or dislikes. It's more about the Inquisition's system. As a representative of the Inquisition, he naturally has to follow its rules… but the knight isn't particularly bad to you either… oh, right!"
At this point, Anne seemed to think of something and suddenly clapped her hands.
"I remember you once said that Regnis has some dragonfolk like you, right?"
"Yes..."
Guleya nodded. Her birth was the result of the union between the King of Regnis and a human woman. Aside from love, there was also a political meaning behind it—symbolizing friendship between dragons and humans.
As the saying goes, those above set the example. Since the king had married a human woman, some dragons below naturally followed suit, and thus some dragonfolk were born. However, their numbers within Regnis were small and they held little influence. Guleya, as a princess, was somewhat better off, but those dragonfolk below inevitably suffered discrimination or bullying.
Guleya had talked to Anne about this issue before, but at the time Anne hadn't had a good solution either.
Now, however, there clearly was one.
"You could bring those dragonfolk to the Inquisition. They aren't happy in Regnis anyway, and the Inquisition's standards for judging humans are very clear. Look at Philine—she's doing quite well here, isn't she? If there were a group of dragonfolk helping out here, wouldn't that be even better?"
This was also one of the reasons Anne made the suggestion. The Inquisition's definition of humans and xenos was extremely clear: a standard skull meant a pure human, while a mutated skull meant not a pure human, more likely a demi-human race.
Of course, the Inquisition also had its own standards for judging demi-humans. First, your ancestors had to be human, at least. Second, there had to be no reproductive barrier between you and humans. Demi-humans were defined as humans who had undergone mutation, with stable heritable traits, thus forming a distinct demi-human race.
Put simply, Guleya, as a child born of a human and a dragon, even though her skull wasn't entirely "pure" (after all, she had horns), was still considered a demi-human race.
On the other hand, races like the Asari—even though they looked very similar to humans—had non-human ancestors, so they were classified as pure xenos.
Even girls like the maid, Rabi, Makina, and other "monster girls," as well as races like the Kala, were also considered demi-humans. Although their maternal side was xenos, their paternal side was human, so by the Inquisition's standards, they belonged to demi-humans rather than xenos.
Going one step further, even the beast races on the War Planet would be judged as demi-humans by the Inquisition's perspective—after all, they were mutated from humans.
Thus, the Inquisition's standard for demi-humans was very clear: not only did you have to look human, but your ancestors had to be human as well. Races like the Asari, whose ancestry had nothing to do with humans for eight generations, were xenos no matter how human they looked.
Applied to Regnis, pureblood dragons were definitely xenos, while dragonfolk born of dragon–human unions were demi-humans.
The former were not within the Inquisition's scope of concern; the latter were a different matter.
In addition, the judgment of demi-humans also required stable heredity. For example, if a dragonfolk and a human had a child, that child could be human or dragonfolk, but could not turn out to be a beastman or a boar-man. If having children were like opening a blind box every time, such unstable genetics would be immediately suppressed and eliminated.
Of course, the most important requirement was loyalty to humanity and loyalty to the Inquisition.
Otherwise, there was only one path left—death.
It was precisely because of this that Anne came up with the idea. She wanted her friend to live well, safely, and peacefully.
Anne knew that as a mixed-blood, Guleya's position within Regnis was actually quite awkward. Most dragons were unwilling to let a hybrid with human blood inherit the throne. In Anne's view, if Guleya wanted stability, she needed to rely on the power of the Inquisition.
Of course, this was also because of Anne's own identity. At the very least, she was a demi-human race, so Duanmu Huai would give her some face. If Regnis sent over a pureblood giant dragon, Anne felt she might be seeing braised dragon meat on the dining table a few days later.
After following Duanmu Huai to so many places, Anne deeply understood just how hardline and high-pressure the Inquisition's attitude toward xenos had always been.
"I… I'll think about it."
After being persuaded by Anne's reasoning, Guleya was somewhat tempted as well. After thinking it over, she nodded.
At that moment, the large door beside them suddenly opened, and a girl hopped out cheerfully, with a drone camera following behind her.
"Ah, Miss Anne, Miss Guleya, good morning! Where are you headed?"
Makina waved cheerfully at the two of them and greeted them, while Anne returned the greeting with a polite nod.
"I'm planning to go to the library to read. What about you, Makina?"
"I'm taking everyone on a tour of the Inquisition."
As she spoke, Makina turned and gestured toward the drone camera beside her.
"A tour? Is that okay?"
Hearing Makina's answer, Guleya was somewhat surprised. By now, they knew that this horse-girl was a hardcore selfie addict. Basically every hour, she would post something on the Star Federation Network's information platform—from what cosmetics she used in the morning, to what she ate for breakfast, what she wore that day, where she went, all the way until before she went to sleep at night. She practically never stopped.
Honestly, Anne and Guleya couldn't pull off something like that. Exposing their daily lives to tens of thousands of strangers on the internet all day long made them uncomfortable. Makina, on the other hand, seemed to genuinely enjoy it… and because of that, she was now extremely popular on the Star Federation Network.
Still, livestreaming an Inquisition battleship was a bit beyond what they had expected.
Facing Guleya's question, Makina nodded.
"I already asked big brother. He said it was fine, and that letting everyone understand the Inquisition a bit more isn't bad either."
If there were official titles, Makina was basically the Inquisition's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Public Relations Ambassador at this point.
Of course, if anyone developed misunderstandings about the Inquisition because of Makina's livestreams… that was their own problem. The Inquisition wasn't taking the blame.
"Little sister Makina is really amazing."
Watching Makina walk away while explaining things to the drone, Anne shook her head.
"I don't have that kind of ability."
"Me neither..."
Guleya deeply agreed. As princesses, they had given speeches to their people during festivals before, but behind Makina's small drone were billions of viewers. Just imagining that many people watching them made their legs go weak—how could they be as enthusiastic as Makina?
After seeing Makina off, the two walked down the corridor, greeted Lorena, who was jogging around the battleship outside, and then arrived at the library on the other side. Anne and Guleya each found a book and began reading carefully.
The Inquisition's library was one of the places the girls visited most often. Not only Anne came here—Maria and Kukulu visited frequently as well. The reason was simple: there was simply too much to learn.
Anne was determined to turn Manaria into a modern, high-level civilized nation, so she couldn't afford to neglect this knowledge. As a genius, her learning speed was naturally astonishing. Guleya, however, suffered. Every time she picked up higher mathematics, it felt even more boring than the history books at Manaria's Magic Academy. Those numbers seemed to have some kind of hypnotic power—after staring at them for a while, she would grow dizzy, then her eyes would close, her hand would loosen…
"The book's about to fall."
Ranni's voice came from nearby, making the drowsy Guleya shudder and sit up straight, like a student caught dozing off in class.
"Miss Ranni, sorry..."
"It's fine."
Ranni simply shook her head. Then Guleya saw her raise her hand and flick her staff. Several thick books flew off the shelves and landed on the chair beside Ranni. Then Ranni turned around, slowly climbed up onto the chair and books, and sat down.
"...…"
Noticing Guleya's gaze, Ranni tugged down the brim of her hat.
"This body is relatively short. I don't want it to be this way either."
"Ah, um...… by the way, you're reading that many...…"
Looking at the pile of books in front of Ranni, Guleya felt her liver trembling.
If Anne was a genius, then Ranni was a freak.
At least Anne was still human. Aside from studying, she would rest from time to time and wouldn't bury herself in books nonstop. Ranni, on the other hand, was different. Other than when Duanmu Huai called her out to fight, she spent all her time in the library, constantly flipping through all kinds of books.
Her main focus was astronomy, so naturally she had to study astrophysics. And since she was already reading astrophysics, she decided to also take a look at condensed matter physics…
Fortunately, Duanmu Huai had collected extremely comprehensive data from that modern civilization on the Hell Planet, and Ranni, relying on the fact that she was a doll who didn't need to eat or drink, plunged straight into it.
When Guleya looked up again, there were several more people nearby. Orgis had somehow also arrived at the library and was reading a novel. The maid was cleaning, and Lumiere had found a book from who knows where and was reading it with great interest.
Ah… when will the knight return…
Guleya sighed silently to herself.
Compared to studying, she preferred… going out and moving her body around. Thinking this, Guleya closed her book, put it back in place, and left the library. She walked down the corridor and arrived at the command room on the other side.
"Ah, Miss Guleya."
Mia, who was sitting at the command console, smiled and greeted her.
"Do you need something?"
"No… I just came to check. When will the knight be back?"
"The master hasn't made plans—"
Before she could finish speaking, Mia tilted her head in confusion and looked toward the screen.
"What's wrong?"
"Detected an unverified small airship entering the Inquisition's star region. That's strange."
"Is it an enemy?"
Hearing this, Guleya immediately became nervous, but Mia shook her head.
"Most likely remaining space pirates from the Boundary God system. Don't worry."
"Why?"
"Their target should be the Steel Hammer."
"...…"
That really was nothing to worry about.
(End of Chapter)