"Have you finished your rounds?"
Miss Julia asks after I tended to all the flowers in the light magic classroom.
"Hm."
"Good, then come with me. We'll continue the rest of the lesson outside. I have something to show you." She says and leads me out through the backdoor.
The academy's grounds cover a very large area, starting from the teaching buildings and campus, all the way to the nearby dungeon entrance, and there's a large forest area before reaching the dungeon.
Of course there are many defensive measures set up along the way for the students' safety and most people aren't allowed to just wander around in the forest either as it counts as a restricted area.
The only exception is when you're accompanied by a teacher or on a mission for the student council, which is partially responsible for policing students too. The student council president, Hugh Latimer and his group are the ones currently in that role.
So normally as a regular student council member, even I wouldn't be allowed to wander this deep into the woods, but with Miss Julia with me, it should be fine.
"You've been making good progress in mastering your light magic. The next parts of regular training would include cutting off larger and larger parts of a plant and then growing it back. However, someone can barely bring herself to do regular pruning and even when I try to make the cuts, gives me such a troubled look."
"..."
"The other option is a bit slower, but you could just keep growing new flowers and you'd eventually learn the same principles of healing magic. But there's really only so much space in our classroom and the infirmary. I already stumbled over some of the smaller plants on the ground more than once. And just throwing the old ones out isn't an option either, right?"
"I… just couldn't bring myself to do that."
Miss Julia glances at me with an accusing gaze and I can't help shrinking back. But they are still living beings I nurtured myself, I can't treat them badly. However it seems like Miss Julia wasn't really angry as she just lets out a sigh and moves on.
"Haah. Such a handful brat, really. Whatever, so I've been looking into another approach. I recalled something I once read about a long time ago and yesterday I managed to confirm that it is indeed real. Look, it's just ahead."
Miss Julia leads me into a clearing in the middle of the forest. This small field is filled with wild flowers at the edge, but towards the middle it gradually gets more and more desolate, ending with just dark dirt visible with a few completely withered up plants that are barely recognisable.
However, in the middle of this small wasteland is a large white sculpture of a beautiful woman. Although the passage of time has left its mark on it as well, leaving many details indistinct, but even with just a trace of its once masterwork quality visible, it is still a work of art and also somewhat familiar.
"I once found some records of an old tradition left behind by the past generations of light magic students here at the academy. It said that before graduating, all the students gathered before the nameless statue behind the academy and tried to bring all the withered flowers back to life through their healing magic."
Miss Julia starts walking towards the sculpture. Ah, I remember now, I think this place was in the game too. Though it mostly just served as the background for some capture target events.
"However, most of them didn't succeed and even the revived flowers soon withered away in just a few minutes. I didn't think much of it at the time and thought it was just a school legend youngsters like to come up with. But with your current situation, I thought I could look into it and to my surprise, there was truth behind it."
She casually touches one of the withered flowers next to the statue and unleashes the largest torrent of light magic I've ever felt from Miss Julia. Even though I've seen her grow an entire flower with just a sliver of this amount, the withered flower barely regains any vitality with just a small leaf sprouting, before she cuts off her magic.
"This place is truly curious, it's a basic principle of light magic that dead things can't be brought back to life and yet, these flowers can still be brought to bloom. My guess is that this is an old professor's work or perhaps even the experiment of one of the founders of the academy. It defies our current understanding of magic, though if my theory is correct, that wouldn't be a surprise. Many things have been lost to time, be it knowledge or traditions."
By now, even that small bit of returned vitality has disappeared and the plant returned to its withered state again.
"But whatever it once was, it should solve our problem, right? Although as you probably felt it, these flowers need exponentially more light magic to show signs of recovery. So you'd probably need to work three or four times harder for the same result. But that's just what you get for being so willful."
"Miss Julia…"
Though her tone of voice would suggest she's scolding or punishing me with this arrangement, I can't help but feel extremely grateful.
"Thank you! Thank you very much, I'll keep studying hard!"
I knew that she was really kind and attentive towards her students from the game, but she even found a solution to my selfish wishes. I was kind of ready to be drowning in all the flowers needed for light magic studies, but this makes things much easier.
"Hmph. At least you know when to show gratitude. From now on the practical parts of our lessons will be held here. Though don't expect me to take out the time to walk all the way here out of the lesson plan."
"Yes! Thank you."
Who would have thought there's a place like this? When it was used as a background, it did seem a bit suspicious, but I thought it was just a random romantic place the developers came up with.
Or maybe all these extra details were in the game, I just wasn't aware of them along with the strange properties of the flowers. Well, whatever the case, I really must thank Miss Julia for all her efforts and I believe this place will help me speed up some of my own plans too…
***
"Okay, it seems like everyone is here. Your duties for today will be the same as previously discussed. I hope all of you are getting used to being here since soon we'll be really busy with the preparations for the upcoming student competition. But all of you have done really well so far, so you don't need to stress about it, I'm sure you will be able to handle it. That is all, you can start working now and if you have any questions you can direct it to Edward, he'll be in charge for today."
Arthur's usual composed voice fills the student council room and then everyone enthusiastically gets to work.
Um, but I didn't get any tasks…
Just as that thought crosses my mind Arthur shows up before me and Hina, with a slightly awkward expression and he says:
"Lady Lucy, if it's okay with you, would you like to accompany me to put up some posters for the competition?"
"I-"
However before I could answer Hina suddenly speaks up:
"I hope Your Highness isn't planning to take this chance to just dump this task on Lucy and leave her behind. But Your Highness isn't that sort of person, right?"
"N-no! Of course not! I swear on the name of Valerion that I'm only asking for help. Of course we'd do it together. Or actually it's fine if Lady Lucy just watches me do it, I just want to talk to her…"
Arthur quickly defends himself in an uncharacteristically flustered way and perhaps even admits to his ulterior motive.
"Hm…" However Hina doesn't seem too convinced by his words.
"Fine, but only if I can go with you as well."
"Hina…"
"Yes! Of course that's alright. Thank you!"
It seems like this matter has been decided without any input from me… Well anyway, I wanted to talk with Arthur too.
***
Take part in the student dueling competition.
Do you want to try out all the new spells and techniques you've learned in a friendly spar? Or do you just want to put your strength to the test and show off the results of your training?
Then sign up for the student dueling competition, no matter if you're a freshman or in your senior year, everyone is welcome. Those with exceptional results will also receive extra credit.
I briefly skim the text on the poster as I secure its edges to a board on the wall.
Right, this main event should be coming up soon.
In the game it was basically just a tournament event where the player could choose a capture target and depending on how much time you spent helping them train, they would get different rankings and could even win the entire tournament.
This competition event is still just a tutorial event, helping the player get more affection points with not much stakes to them. So it would be fine for me to skip the entire thing.
Though I won't be so lucky in the future since there are many upcoming events I can't afford to just ignore. But for now at least, I have some breathing room.
"..."
I glance to the side where two other people are putting up similar posters along the empty hallway and can't help but notice the tense and somewhat awkward atmosphere.
"Um… So Your Highness, are you feeling any better? Have you felt like anything is off since last time?"
I decide to break the deafening silence.
"...! N-no, I don't think so. I even went to the royal physician for a thorough check-up, but he said he didn't find anything wrong with me. Even my mental evaluation came back with no problems, they just said I might have overworked myself, which could have resulted in me acting unlike myself. Ah, also you can just call me Arthur, I don't deserve to be addressed in such a formal way. Or even that might be too much for someone like me, just call me 'you there' or 'trash'-"
"T-that's good to hear your High-... Lord Arthur!"
I quickly interrupt him before his 'perfect prince' image completely shatters before me. His current self really feels like a good kid, who accidentally hurt someone and he's now trying to do anything to make up for it.
It completely clashes with his previous persona, and while I know from the original story that all of that was just an act, since he'd later open up to Lucy about it in his route.
He's basically still a child at heart, but due to his position he always had to hold up such an image in front of everyone else. But deep down, he wants to play around and act like a normal kid too.
That's also part of why he gets along so well with Bernard, who is pretty much the embodiment of the carefree life he wants to have.
But still, seeing his persona crumble before me so quickly feels a bit weird… Well, at least now I know he's no longer influenced by this world's will or whatever it was that caused his change.
"So you're saying that you have no excuse for your behaviour, Your Highness?"
"Hina…"
Then Seraphina also steps in, with a disdainful look on her face as she glares at Arthur.
"No, she's right. I'm truly sorry and my offer still stands. You can ask anything of me and I'll do everything I can to fulfill it."
"Then-"
"No, No! Still no demands from me. I believe you."
"Hmph."
I quickly stop Hina from making any unreasonable requests and she turns away, clearly in a bad mood. Arthur on the other hand looks at me with clearly grateful eyes. Ugh, what a mess…
"Or actually there might be one thing…"
"Hm? What is it? I'll take care of it!"
"If it's alright with you, could we spend some time together sometimes? Since it's clear that you don't like to act the way you did previously, we could make sure you don't return to that condition. So it would be something like a regular check-up, what do you think?"
I've been thinking about it and it's great we managed to get Arthur to come back to his senses so quickly, but I can't be sure that he wouldn't just get influenced again.
Ah, maybe this is this world's way of getting me involved with the capture targets? I really don't like what that implies, but I should keep this in mind for future events as well.
"Is that it? Of course that's okay."
"That's not okay at all!"
Two opposite answers come to my request at the same time.
"Are you two thinking clearly? If Your Highness decided to act like a brute again, what could you do about it, Lucy?"
"I…"
"..."
Seraphina's stern voice silences both of us.
"That means such an arrangement is only acceptable if I'm present as well. Actually that goes for all of the interactions between you two. I'll keep supervising the way Your Highness is acting and give you a wake up call again, if you lose your mind like before. Is that acceptable?"
"..."
"Why do you keep calling me 'Your Highness' again…"
For some reason the way Hina is talking right now kind of sounds like something the in-game villainess Seraphina would say…
"I said, is that acceptable?"
"Yes!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Seraphina's suddenly cold voice snaps both me and Arthur out of our thoughts and we instantly agree to her demands with our backs straight.
Truly like a villainess… hehe.
But in the end, now one thing is for sure. Just because I don't want it to, it doesn't mean the story of the game won't progress on its own.
Staying passive will just make things spiral out of control in unexpected ways, so if I truly want to achieve a happy ending it might be time for me to start acting like a protagonist, at least a little bit…