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Prince Richard’s inspection of the academy officially began. It was the third day since his arrival at the academy.

Although his official schedule started yesterday, the academy prepared a welcoming event for him, given that it was an inspection personally conducted by a prince.

The Infractus Empire was a nation with a strong imperial authority, so they had no choice but to handle Prince Richard, who was dispatched directly from the imperial family, with caution.

After completing the official academy event, he immediately inspected the academy’s security system the very next day.

Demia Academy, which had allowed two intrusions by the Resistance—divided into new and old factions—within half a year, had no choice but to raise serious doubts about its stability.

Think about it—who could trust the academy’s security after it was breached twice in a row?

The reason the Empire and Demia Academy excessively glorified Gilbert as a hero was also to cover up the issue. Covering an issue with another issue was the easiest and most effective way to divert people’s attention.

In fact, public interest in Demia Academy’s security system naturally shifted to the birth of a new hero. The story of a troublemaker turning over a new leaf to become the Empire’s hero was a compelling narrative.

But Prince Richard was different. Having officially entered the battle for the throne, he couldn’t afford to overlook even the smallest flaw in the academy.

Demia Academy was where his biggest rival, Princess Seraphina, served as the student council president. It would be foolish to ignore any flaws in Seraphina, who was widely regarded as the closest to the throne.

Of course, the overall responsibility here lay with Marquis Lucas, so openly attacking the academy could backfire.

The Turramentum Marquisate had long been known as a pro-imperial noble family, and even Marquis Lucas, who had retired from the frontlines long ago, still wielded significant influence within the imperial army.

The prestige of the Turramentum Marquisate and Marquis Lucas’s reputation within the Empire would be a powerful asset when ascending to the throne. It would be amateurish to ruin things by focusing only on immediate gains.

Naturally, Prince Richard was no amateur. Instead of directly undermining Demia Academy’s security system, he shifted the blame to the student council, which was responsible for overseeing its inspection. While the academy built the system, the student council was in charge of its maintenance.

Wasn’t the security breach due to the student council’s oversight?

What exactly had the student council been inspecting to let things get this bad?

It was a stretch, but it wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Is there a flaw in the academy’s security magic circle? Has it been reported?”

“A maintenance request for the magic circle has been submitted. We recently noticed damage to the magic circle due to the cold weather and plan to address it soon.”

“This magic circle was mentioned in a recent paper from the Magic Society as having issues. Are you aware of that?”

“We’ve reviewed the recent paper. However, it’s still at the hypothesis stage and hasn’t been proven, so we’re hesitant to make changes.”

Though it was called an inspection, it felt more like an audit. The student council was sweating as they responded to the increasingly sharp questions from the inspection team.

Fortunately, they were handling it well so far, but no one knew how long that would last.

After the inspection of the security magic circle, it was the academy guard’s turn. The guards, who took pride in their work, also struggled under the inspection team’s relentless questioning and eventually showed a crack.

A guard who had pulled an all-nighter failed to report on time, which became the issue. The inspection team finally had something to note and wrote “negligence of duty” on their evaluation sheet.

“President, are you just going to stand by and watch?”

The news of the inspection team marking the guards for negligence quickly reached the student council executives. Talismann, the vice president deeply entrenched in imperial ideology, found it increasingly difficult to tolerate the inspection team’s overreach.

“We have no grounds to intervene. The inspection team, though high-handed, is faithfully carrying out their duties. Interfering now would undermine their authority and could have negative consequences.”

Seraphina furrowed her brow.

She knew full well that this entire farce was orchestrated by her brother, Prince Richard. He had been biding his time, pretending to have given up on the throne, waiting for the perfect moment to bring her down.

“We can’t just sit back. This is an insult to our student council.”

Talismann clenched his fists.

As a staunch imperialist, he was a man filled with pride in his family. He despised being disrespected and, as the eldest son of a hardline family, couldn’t tolerate being slighted.

The reason he reacted so strongly to this inspection was because he couldn’t shake the feeling that the student council was being disrespected. While inspecting the security system was part of the student council’s duties, they weren’t experts in magic circles.

They received minimal training, but it was standard to hire professional security mages for inspections. After two academy intrusions, the student council had dismissed all previously hired security mages and brought in top-tier ones.

But the inspection team was cleverly shifting blame to the student council with theoretical arguments. As Talismann said, this wouldn’t have happened if the student council hadn’t been looked down upon.

“Even so, the inspection team was officially dispatched by the imperial family. This is the Emperor’s will, and going against it would be unwise.”

This was the main reason Seraphina couldn’t counter Richard’s schemes, even though she knew what he was up to.

The inspection team, dispatched by the imperial family, had the official purpose of inspecting the academy. Since this was sanctioned by the Empire’s ruler, even Seraphina couldn’t stop them.

It could be interpreted as defying the Emperor’s orders.

What a headache.

Seraphina sensed that Prince Richard, who had been lying low, was finally stretching his legs.

“President, unfortunately, the vice president is right this time.”

Courtney, unusually, agreed with Talismann.

“Then do you have a good solution?”

Seraphina looked around at the student council executives.

They, too, had no clear solution, so they avoided her sharp gaze.

They had only complained to Seraphina, the president, in this frustrating situation. Though they were recognized talents in the Empire, their opponent was a monster who had written an undefeated legend on the battlefield.

His strategies and tactics always brought despair to the enemy and glorious victory to his allies. This time, his target was the student council.

And he brought with him a masterful political maneuver.

Even the student council executives found it difficult to resolve this.

Seraphina sipped her herbal tea and slowly devised a countermeasure.

The inspection team was ultimately focused on Demia Academy’s security system, which had allowed the intrusions. First, it was the security magic circle, and second, the guards.

They pointed out the guards’ negligence in handling the initial response during the previous intrusion, and unfortunately, their strategy had worked.

Since it was hard to fix what had already happened, it was important to show them that there was a backup plan.

And Seraphina had just the right card to play.

We’ll need the priest’s help.

Seraphina thought of Gilbert, who would be the perfect reinforcement in this situation.

He had achieved the feat of safely protecting all the nobles and citizens who came to watch the Lion King’s birthday celebration. He single-handedly dealt with dozens of colossal mechs.

The academy’s security system is a mess?

Seraphina scoffed.

This was Demia Academy, where military training was part of the curriculum. Enemy attacks could happen at any time, and it was the cadets’ duty to respond accordingly.

They were the academy’s security system, and their failure was the academy’s failure.

So, it was necessary to highlight how well they had repelled the intrusion.

Adding that Demia’s ultimate security system was the Empire’s hero, Gilbert, was the cherry on top.

“Cadet Gilbert.”

“President? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

When Seraphina suddenly mentioned Gilbert’s name, Ian asked in surprise.

Hearing the name of his always-rival, he reflexively reacted.

“The inspection team is currently pointing out that the academy’s allowance of intrusions is the student council’s fault. However, the academy repelled all intruders and protected the nobles and citizens present at the time. The foundation that made this possible was none other than Cadet Gilbert.”

“In other words, if Cadet Gilbert had been part of the student council, then repelling the intruders would have been the student council’s achievement.”

Talismann adjusted his slipping glasses and smirked. He seemed to see a way forward.

“But Cadet Gilbert isn’t part of the student council. Even if we prepare documents now, they’ll think we fabricated them for this inspection.”

Ian, who didn’t want to lose his edge over Gilbert—being a student council executive—opposed Seraphina’s idea by pointing out what the inspection team might criticize.

“We don’t have to formally accept him. Cadet Gilbert is the princess’s priest. Since he’s under Professor Briana’s tutelage, we can consider him an honorary student council member.”

Seraphina’s words were a play on semantics, but a princess’s priest couldn’t be treated as an ordinary cadet.

Wasn’t that why Gilbert had personally sought out Briana to become her disciple in the first place?

If this inspection was a battle of legitimacy, putting Gilbert front and center would be a strong argument. As they say, you can twist it to fit your narrative.

“That could be a clever move.”

Courtney agreed with Seraphina’s idea. In a situation where they had no cards to play, Gilbert was an unexpected wildcard.

“Then we’ll need to get Cadet Gilbert on board. Cadet Ian, go fetch Cadet Gilbert as soon as possible.”

Ian’s pride was hurt by Seraphina’s order, but he tried not to show it and bowed his head.

“Understood.”

Though he felt miserable, now wasn’t the time to protest.

Ian bit his lip as he bowed.

***

“Priest. From now on, you are an honorary student council executive.”

What?

Gilbert had to receive this strange proposal—no, notification—during a private meeting with Seraphina.

 

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