Carla reads obsessively about knowledge of demons.
However, those bits of knowledge are far too basic. Carla doesn’t even know such fundamentals.
Either she is a foreigner to this continent, or she herself is a demon who doesn’t know what is important to humans.
After pondering the lady’s deduction for a moment, Arald asked.
“Does the fact that her knowledge of demons is lacking mean that Carla hasn’t been here long?”
“Yes. Not just Carla—Atlas as an educational institution has a short history in this land.”
Atlas was founded not long ago.
Under Principal Carla’s leadership, massive buildings were erected, with excellent facilities and teachers gathered together, becoming the finest educational institution in the nation in a short time.
“Before the academy named Atlas appeared, there was no such person as Carla anywhere.”
“Are you certain of that?”
“With that appearance? Even if she weren’t with Atlas, that face alone would’ve made her famous long ago. But no one knows who Carla was before she became principal.”
At that, Arald and Lirih looked at each other.
An outsider—or a demon.
To both of them, who fit either category, Carla’s situation didn’t feel far removed.
The lady spoke.
“After founding Atlas, Carla lived quite quietly. She didn’t study demon knowledge, nor did she wander around meeting nobles. She was like an ordinary principal—except for her looks.”
“Then Carla’s recent behavior must look very strange to those around her.”
“Yes. But most think she’s simply trying to pay attention to relationships with the surrounding nobles, even {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} if belatedly. Or that the profits she tasted with her looks were too great, so she changed her mind.”
“But whatever the reason, the current Carla looks far too impatient.”
Everyone here still didn’t know Carla’s true intent, but they could feel she was pushing herself.
She had approached the son of a famous noble family. Even if nothing improper happened, that was enough to arouse suspicion. And the rumor that she was gathering knowledge about demons had already spread widely.
“In fact, that impatience is what made us begin to suspect Carla.”
At that moment, Lirih thought. If Carla really is a demon, then perhaps she’s in a situation very similar to Lirih’s own past.
In other words, the one who could best understand Carla here—was Lirih herself.
‘I understand founding Atlas. Just like I became a Zodiac, and Arald founded the company Hitchcock. If you really want to live properly in human society, you have to arm yourself with a powerful lie. Humans look for what’s hidden—they don’t look for what’s right in front of them. They don’t need to.’
Most demons in the Empire live in hiding. That is the natural flow of things. Demons, seen by humans as enemies—if such demons wish to live among humans, they inevitably must hide.
Even if distinguishing demons from humans is difficult, they could never think to reveal themselves openly.
In other words, Lirih and Arald had used that very prejudice—that demons would of course live hidden—to instead show themselves openly, and thus find stability. Agoris is even more accustomed to demons than the Falind continent. Carla must have reached a similar conclusion.
‘If Carla really is a demon, then after founding Atlas she would’ve decided to live quietly there—as long as possible. That matches what the lady said about how she used to be.’
The lady had said Carla originally lived quietly.
‘So Carla’s current actions aren’t a continuation of her old quiet life—they contradict it. Her purposes are clashing.’
Until now she had lived without trouble, but suddenly she began acting strangely, drawing everyone’s attention.
That surely wasn’t the situation she wanted. That was what Lirih thought.
“......Her situation changed.”
“Hmm?”
“Carla’s situation changed. I don’t know the details, but something happened that forced her to change the plan she had—to stay quiet.”
Lirih calmly explained to Arald, who had asked again.
Hearing this, Arald turned to the lady.
“My lady, did you put on that act in the faculty office to deceive Carla’s eyes?”
“Yes. Because we couldn’t trust anyone in Atlas—not even Carla herself. Above all, we didn’t want her to realize that our house was suspicious of her. A woman like that barging into Atlas just to look after her son wouldn’t seem like someone with an ulterior motive, right?”
Well, that made sense.
The lady continued.
“Up until right before you arrived at Atlas, the nobles were paying a lot of attention to Carla’s movements. Politically—or, well, in slightly indecent ways.”
“So they were rather sensitive.”
“The ones truly on edge were the few nobles who learned that Carla was seeking demon knowledge. That’s why, when I heard that new teachers had been assigned to Atlas, I thought something was starting to move.”
Frondier and Elodie. Their sudden appearance. The lady had at first thought the two teachers were Carla’s underlings.
But when surprisingly nothing happened and things stayed quiet, this time a ‘transfer student’ had gotten into a fight with her son.
“So I went to the faculty office myself. I’m sorry, Pielot student. I was suspicious of you.”
“Ah, n-no...... It’s fine. Nothing happened anyway.”
Pielot shook his head.
Meanwhile, Arald thought.
‘Then that mana Frondier mentioned—it must’ve been a probing spell to figure out Pielot’s identity.’
Arald asked.
“Have your doubts about us been cleared up?”
They couldn’t mention the mana she had emitted in the faculty office, but judging from her words, it seemed she had dropped her suspicions about Pielot.
“Yes, I didn’t suspect you that much from the start. It seemed my son caused the trouble anyway. You couldn’t have provoked that.”
But Lady Achaia began to speak again, her expression sinking.
“The new teacher at Atlas—that man has become even more suspicious.”
“......!”
She meant Frondier. Lirih, Arald, and Pielot all tried to keep their faces still.
“To be honest, I’ll speak plainly. In the faculty office, I acted a little—and I used magic.”
“......!”
This time they were truly shocked. They hadn’t expected her to admit it openly.
Lirih asked.
“What kind of magic?”
“As you might’ve guessed, a spell that reveals the target’s age. As you know, demons live much longer than humans, so their faces often don’t match their age. It’s the simplest way to identify them. Not perfectly accurate, though.”
They hadn’t guessed that at all.
Lirih and Arald didn’t show it, but they were confused.
A spell that reveals a target’s age doesn’t exist on the Falind continent.
In Falind, demons themselves were unfamiliar, so counter-demon spells or technologies had never developed. They focused more on fighting powerful monsters.
But in Agoris, perhaps they were adept at dealing with demons.
“But that man alone noticed my spell.”
“...The teacher?”
“Yes. Right before I tried to check Pielot student’s identity, I felt an unknown force strike at me. It was the first time I’d ever felt such fear and pressure.”
Even now, when recalling it, Lady Achaia seemed to tremble slightly and shook her head.
Then, narrowing her eyes, she said,
“That power was definitely not human. It was without doubt demonic.”
“.......”
Completely wrong—but impossible to deny.
The lady looked at Arald and Lirih.
“He’s in league with Carla. Or maybe he’s the true mastermind. If he possesses that kind of power, it’s entirely possible. Please, you two, be careful.”
***
Frondier proposed a large-scale mock duel between the different grades at Atlas.
There was an excellent excuse for it.
“Recently, two students fought a duel, one fainted, and the family uproar that followed was considerable.”
Pielot and Ias’s duel.
Since things had already turned out that way, Frondier decided to make full use of it.
“The rumors have spread, and now the noble houses are contacting us, worried about their children. I’m sure all of you teachers have heard.”
That part was true. In fact, calls like that had been coming to the faculty office often, and the homeroom teachers like Frondier knew the situation best.
“But we can’t prohibit duels between students. Not as long as they’re done properly under the rules.”
Indeed, Ias and Pielot had fought a proper duel under fair rules. That’s why Ias only fainted without serious injury.
“So, a mock duel?”
Teacher Giotto asked. Frondier nodded.
He looked around at the other teachers and spoke.
“If we can’t stop it, then we can show it. Let them see how duels are conducted, how much damage they might cause, and how the students overcome it.”
The reason the families worry about their children is only one.
Because they’ve never seen it.
They don’t know how duels are conducted, and so their imagination runs wild with ‘what ifs.’
That imagination must not grow excessive.
'The official reason may be that—but in truth, the noble families will have other motives.'
That was only the stated purpose of the event.
But this time, Atlas’s and the nobles’ interests aligned perfectly.
“A perfect chance for our family’s child to display ability before the eyes of many noble houses.”
The families would catch onto that immediately—and Frondier knew that’s precisely why this plan could succeed.
'Even if it’s large-scale, the duels themselves won’t be very exciting. They won’t use real blades, and the magic will be heavily restricted.'
Since the surface purpose was to reassure the parents, the duels would be conducted very safely.
But Frondier didn’t care whether the event was interesting or not.
'What matters is that this event will inevitably draw countless nobles. She won’t be able to stay away.'
Carla.
The principal of Atlas, who never shows her face—he was planning to drag her out by force.
“Mr. Frondier, the plan sounds good, but how will you run it? If every student duels 1:1, it’ll take forever.”
“Of course. So we’ll select class representatives. Each class can decide their representative however they wish—by dueling, by vote, anything they like.”
Another teacher asked,
“What about the gap between grades? Will the third-years get a handicap?”
Third-years had studied far longer than first-years. Naturally, they had the advantage.
Frondier answered,
“There will be no handicap. The duel must be fair.”
“Then......”
“Of course the third-years will have the advantage. But since everyone knows that, it won’t be much of an issue.”
This event didn’t carry any great reward or honor.
If there was any benefit, it was the chance to be noticed by the noble houses. For truly ambitious students, a match against an upperclassman would be something to desire.
And more importantly—
“In events like this, there’s always the question of unexpected upsets, isn’t there?”
Frondier knew Pielot’s thirst. Among his grade, Pielot had no equal opponent.
So it didn’t matter.
If no underclassman could defeat Pielot, fine. If one could—then even better.
'Now that would be something to look forward to.'
Frondier was genuinely looking forward to some arrogant underclassman appearing to crush his own student.
