My job was to grant my lady"s wishes, but if I didn"t understand said wishes, I wouldn"t be able to help her. On the way back to the cla.s.sroom after the tea party was finished, I decided to confirm her intentions.
"My lady, what are you thinking about?"
"There are people with strong thoughts of elitism around the second prince."
It was a round-about way of saying things, but she meant that the second prince was elitist as well.
I would"ve doubted it if it weren"t my lady saying it. Or rather, in the game, she was the one with the elitist thoughts while the prince was a person who advocated against them.
People with those ideals were gathering– if Lady Sophia was able to a.s.sert this in such a short period of time meant that they weren"t trying to hide it.
It"s quite unexpected for the prince to be taken in with such people.
Was it part of the setting that he changes his mind in these three years before the game begins, or just like my lady, has he been affected by some external influence… either way, it was necessary to keep a close eye on him.
"…by the way, did you understand what you were doing when you created your faction, my lady?
"Yes, I did."
If the second prince really was an elitist, then their factions influence was far stronger than I thought. Even if we tried to avoid them, we"d be swallowed up by their power no matter how much we hated it. Knowing that, it was necessary to take immediate measures to prevent such a scenario from occurring.
However–
"Is there not a way to distance ourselves from both powers?"
"I don"t want to."
"Y-you don"t want to?"
I didn"t think that my suggestion would be immediately rejected, so I was left dumbfounded for a moment.
"To avoid aligning ourselves from either powers, we"d need to establish ourselves as neutral force, taking appropriate actions to match that stance. In other words, wouldn"t that mean I"d have distance myself from you as well, Cyril?"
"You should do that if it"s something necessary."
"But it"s not necessary. Why would you suggest something so mean?"
"I"m not trying to be. My lady, are you going to put yourself in opposition to this country"s prince?"
Even if the prince was part of the elitists, Lady Sophia easily had the power to compete with him. Which is exactly why the other parties wouldn"t leave her alone. The intensification of this conflict was inevitable.
"I guess it would be better for a daughter of the Rosenberg house to stay away from such troubles."
"Yes. Which is even more of a reason why you should try to stay as a neutral party."
"Don"t worry. I"m not going to go around picking fights. If possible, I"ll try best to keep away from the conflict. That"s why I didn"t make my position clear."
"…I see."
I was relieved to see that she had thought this through, but then she added, "However–"
"That"s only "if possible." If I"m ever told that I had to forsake you as part of my duties as a n.o.ble, I will resist that fate even if I had to turn the G.o.ds themselves into my enemies."
"…my lady. You shouldn"t make jokes like that."
"I wasn"t making one."
The amethyst eyes looking straight at me were clear. My lady was serious about how she"d even turn celestial beings into her enemies rather than distance herself from me.
The feelings I felt at that moment were something that couldn"t be expressed into words. A pa.s.sion that I couldn"t control began swelling in my heart.
But as a butler, and even more so as someone who wishes for my lady"s happiness, what would be the "right" choice to make here? Finis.h.i.+ng this conflict inside of me, I exhaled a small sigh.
"Understood. My lady, if you"re willing to go that far, then I"ll withdraw the words I mentioned earlier. On top of that, I"ll also do my best to keep you from becoming hostile towards the G.o.ds."
"Okay. I believe in you, Cyril."
My lady said that she wouldn"t make it clear whether she opposed the elitists. This should buy us a little time, but there"s no doubt that both powers will try to make contact in the near future.
It wasn"t desirable to become openly hostile with the second prince"s faction. With that in mind, we should try to get in touch with commoner faction secret and tell them that we"re actually on their side, all while maintaining a neutral stance on the surface.
However, as long as we didn"t know where the elitists were watching, we couldn"t recklessly get in contact with the commoners. We needed a place where this gathering could happen naturally.
The best I could think of was the new student welcome party.
Before the heroine even enrolls into the academy, I"ll make contact with the Lacourt Company"s Libert and make him understand that my lady is a friend that doesn"t have elitist thoughts.
For that goal, it was necessary to continue the new student welcome party"s setup. With my cla.s.smates" aid, I made the resolve to push forward our work with full force.
The students weren"t professionals, but kids. Just as professor Tristan said, there were still many deficiencies in my cla.s.smate"s work. They couldn"t compare at all to the servants of the Rosenberg Marquis house.
However, they weren"t just any kids, but the most elite of their age group. They absorbed my knowledge and experience like dry sand to water.
They covered for each other"s insufficiencies until the work they put out met my standards.
Also, being a minority consisting of only a third of the cla.s.s actually worked out pretty well.
If it were the school festival of my previous life, it"d be better to have more hands because we did everything ourselves. However, the welcome party was a so-called social event.
This allowed me to hire contractors for a.s.sistance.
Therefore, if there were too many people in charge of each task, the individual sense of responsibility will fade. It was only because there were so few of us that we were able to work together all the more strongly.
In short, the party"s set up went amazingly well.
Just like that, a month pa.s.sed until it was the day before the party. The site venue had reached a standard that even the Rosenberg Marquis house would accept.
However, we weren"t finished yet. The actual party was tomorrow. In order to prevent even the slightest deficiencies in the event, I had gathered everyone in the cla.s.sroom to make one final check.
"–the orchestra will be staying here tonight as planned, and there"s no problems with the venue"s setup either. The preparations for tomorrow"s party are flawless."
While listening to Luke"s report, I checked over the doc.u.ment with my own eyes. Thanks to everyone"s cooperation, it could be said that I accomplished something that I could proudly declare to be the work of my lady"s exclusive butler.
The work my friends had done was exceptional as well. As expected of cla.s.s students.
"–Okay, everything seems to be fine. Everyone, thank you so much for your hard work!"
The moment I said that, everyone broke out into cheers.
"Cyril, thank you so much!"
"Thanks, Cyril. I really enjoyed working with you!"
"No, this is all because of the effort you all put into this. However, we can"t relax until the event is over. Please make sure to your jobs properly tomorrow as the venue"s security."
"We won"t let you down!"
Over this past month, I"ve grown closer with them and made some friends. If I ever get tasked with setting up another party, I"m sure they"d lend me their aid. Our bonds have grown strong enough for me to think so.
If another opportunity presents itself, I"d like to work with them again too.
Come to think of it, my surroundings were just the slightest bit older than me.
My lady was the same age as me as well, but she was more like someone I served. For me, these people here were probably the first friends I"ve ever made since I was born in this world.
"Cyril? Is there something wrong?"
"No, it"s nothing."
While a warm feeling gradually spread throughout my chest, I started to wrap up business for the day.
"Everyone, please make sure to get enough rest for tomorrow. Once again, thank you so much for your hard work."
After dismissing my friends with words of thanks, I started towards the party venue to check over everything one last time.
"Cyril, where are you going?"
Luke was the one that chased after me.
"It"s the last check. It"s not that I don"t trust everyone"s reports, but I just wanted to see the final results with my own eyes."
"In that case, is it okay if I come too?"
As he asked that, he started walking beside me before I could reply.
It was an expected action. Over the past month, I had grown really close to Luke. The feeling of incongruity I felt about him when we first met was completely gone.
On top of that, he seems to have grown accustomed to working as my a.s.sistant.
"You made a lot of progress in this past month."
At first, Luke was unfamiliar with the work and I had to constantly watch over him. However, by the end of things, I was able to leave most of the commands to him.
Thanks to that, I had the free time to follow up with everyone, which improved the setup"s quality quite noticeably.
"It"s because you"re a really good teacher. I"ve been told before that I"m not suitable for leading others, but I think I"ve got the knack now because of you. So thanks, I"m grateful for what you"ve done."
"If anything, you all were the ones helping me."
I felt a little ticklish, but apparently I seem to be suited for instructing others. The time I spent with Lady Sophia helped me find this side of myself.
In the future, it might not be so bad to become a teacher like professor Tristan.
As we continued our chat, we finally arrived at the party"s venue. After greeting the guards, we stepped into the site for the final check.
The event wasn"t limited to only those of the same grade, students from other years could come too.
The site venue that could accommodate hundreds of people was no different from the Rosenberg Marquis house"s party hall that I was used to.
Looking at everything as a whole, no one would doubt it if they were told it was set up by professionals.
However, it couldn"t be said that there are no deficiencies in the details. As I looked over the smaller features such as the furnis.h.i.+ngs and tables, Luke– who was watching me work from behind, opened his mouth.
"…by the way, can I ask you something?"
"Of course, ask me anything."
"How are you so talented at your age?"
"Even if you ask me that, I didn"t do anything special. I just worked my hardest everyday to become someone suitable for my lady."
"…I think you"ve gone far beyond the level that others would be willing to go though."
Luke whispered that in an amazed tone behind me.
I felt a little bad, but no matter how close we got, the fact that I had the memories of my previous life was a secret. What I said was true though, I was only a student majoring in magecraft back then. I didn"t have any skills of a butler developed at all.
The reason why I"m the way I am now was due to nothing but the effort I put in.
"Is it okay if I ask something this time?"
"Huh? Why"re you acting so formal?"
"The fact that you were looking into my background, was that simply because you were curious, Luke? Or is it… because someone ordered you to investigate me?"
I couldn"t confirm his expression with him standing behind me.
For a while now, I"ve noticed both him and Chloe making moves to pry into my ident.i.ty. There wasn"t any hostility in their actions though, so I let it slide until now because it didn"t seem like something they wanted revealed.
I turned back towards him after giving him enough time to fix his facial expression. However, Luke had a bitter smile on that didn"t try to hide at all.
"…how long have you known for?"
"I"ve been suspicious from the beginning. Chloe knew my name even though it was our first meeting, and the explanation she gave after you were caught glaring at me felt really forced."
It would"ve been a different story if they had seen the still images of me in Espressivo of Light and Darkness, but that probably wasn"t the case.
This meant that they had the opportunity to confirm my appearance somewhere in advance.
So Luke was observing me, but he was being so explicit that I started to grow suspicious. Chloe noticed that, and tried to mislead me into thinking that it was only because he was jealous of me.
This is the truth behind their farce.
They weren"t the only ones, there were others making such actions as well.
Like when Fol started mentioning the "rumoured Sophia."
Or when professor Tristan tested my personality when he fanned the flames in the cla.s.s conflict.
With all of this, the truth was obvious. Someone was looking into me.
Of course, there was always the possibility that I was just overthinking things. In terms of probability, it most likely was just my imagination, but Luke and Chloe were the ones to confirm my suspicions.
"It"s my loss. You knew from the very beginning? By the way, if I confess that I was investigating you under another"s orders, what will you do?"
"Nothing really."
"…what do you mean?"
"I don"t know what your intentions are, but I"ve seen the hard work you"ve done in the past month. You"re a serious and competent helper. There"s no reason for me to distance myself from you."
There was nothing strange about investigating the talented Marquis" daughter Lady Sophia and her surroundings. Anyone serving a n.o.ble house would try to more or less get some information about her.
So I didn"t intend to do anything about it, I only asked because I"ve been wondering about it for a while now.
"It"s hard to believe that we"re the same age. You"re just like my mentor."
"…you"re mentor?"
"There"s nothing more I can say, but they"re the one that taught me everything."
"I see. So you were looking into me on that person"s order?"
"I won"t apologise for what I"ve done. However, both Chloe and I, in addition to our mentor– have no hostility towards you at the moment."
"…how honest."
"At the moment"– as in, depending on the results of their investigation into me, hostilities were possible. Or at least, they may become that way in the future.
But for Luke himself to confess so, he must"ve decided that there wasn"t any chance of that happening. I don"t know who Luke serves nor who his mentor is, but it seems it would be better not to make an enemy of them.
"At first I really was just going to be an observer, but now I"m actually really happy that I got to work with you."
"I"m honoured to hear that… but what"s with this so suddenly?"
"I"ve heard some stories from the courtyard group. Apparently, they"re really envious of us."
"…they"re envious of us?"
"Yeah. It seems they decided to work under Raymond"s command. It seems they"re being pushed around by him, so they were really lamenting their situation once they heard how ours was going."
"Oh… I see."
How he was doing things wasn"t necessarily wrong, but you needed a lot of charisma in order to have everyone follow you.
Moreover, each student has things they wanted to do. In such a situation, if you just continued to give out orders unilaterally, it"s only natural for a rebound to happen, this definitely isn"t good.
Although it"s been confirmed that there weren"t any problems with the setup itself… from what I"ve been told, it doesn"t seem like they were very motivated in doing it. Just because the setup was complete, doesn"t mean we can rest a.s.sured.
During tomorrow"s event, it may be necessary to make sure no problems occur in the courtyard.
"Luke, let"s send someone who"s free to check out the courtyard venue"s current situation tomorrow."
"Huh? Who cares about them… wait, are you being serious right now?"
"If a problem they can"t handle alone occurs, we"ll move to support them."
"Hey, are you really going to send salt to our enemies?"
"…our enemies? No, not at all."
I started to laugh at Luke"s misconception.
Professor Tristan was the one goaded on the confrontation, and when he divided the group, he said:
"The head of the cla.s.s is Cyril."
The head, or representative of the cla.s.s was the person responsible for the setup.
It was the job of the person in charge to take responsibility when something happens. With that in mind, as the cla.s.s representative, the scope of my duties covered the entire cla.s.s.
The group that setup the courtyard were also members of the cla.s.s.
I was currently in a position to take responsibility when they had problems.
Tomorrow, if I left the courtyard"s problems to themselves and lost myself in victory over how our setup was better, professor Tristan would undoubtedly say:
"You have neglected your responsibilities as the cla.s.s representative."
It was a similar problem to how I had to prove myself as Lady Sophia"s exclusive butler. As this cla.s.s" representative, I couldn"t make such mistakes. I was the one who was supposed to cover for them, not the teacher.
That"s why– from then on, I talked to Luke about the measures we would put in place tomorrow.
–The next day, the welcome party for the new students was held as scheduled. The new admissions that had just entered the junior high section were chatting happily as they listened to the orchestra"s beautiful performance.
Both the teachers and the students seemed to be having pleasant reactions.
Of course, various large and small problems did occur, but thanks to the discussion on countermeasures we had in advance, everyone was able to calmly respond to them.
Shortly after that, I heard that a problem had occurred in the courtyard venue. Apparently, some trouble had been stirred up after some n.o.bles had appeared there.
"Luke, can you take some people to a.s.sist them?"
"Okay, leave it to me!"
Raymond would definitely hate it if I went. Keeping that in mind, I left it to Luke and with the reasoning that the person in charge of this area shouldn"t leave it. As he was now, I knew he could take care of it with peace of mind.
After delegating that duty to Luke, I then received news that Lady Sophia was calling for me, so I left the current area to Chloe and visited the venue.
"You called for me, my lady?"
"Cyril, I"m sorry for disturbing you when you"re so busy. Is this okay?"
"Of course it is."
As long as I was her exclusive butler, her needs would always be my top priority.
After seeing my reaction, my lady then turned to look back at the venue. To the dance hall in particular. To the orchestra"s music, the students were currently waltzing with each other.
"…is there something you need from the dance hall?"
"Umm, you see. That"s…"
I could guess what my lady wanted, but I wasn"t a partic.i.p.ant but a manager right now, and that"s in addition to my status as a servant. As expected, it wouldn"t be appropriate for me to dance with her.
Understanding that the young lady of the Rosenberg family couldn"t be the one to initiate an invitation to dance, I pretended that I couldn"t understand her intentions.
However, there"s a chance that my lady will fall into darkness if I handle this poorly. As I thought about that, a boy suddenly walked up and asked, "My apologies for interrupting your conversation, but are you Lady Sophia?"
I was familiar with that calculative look and that chestnut brown hair. He was the leader of the commoner faction that opposed the elitists as well as one of the heroine"s capture targets, Libert.
So he"s the one that"s going to make the first move?
Ideally, I would"ve been the one to initiate contact, but this was still within expectations. I don"t panic and whisper to my lady that he was the son of the Lacourt Company"s president.
"Oh my, are you Libert? I believe this is the first time we"ve met."
"For you to remember the name of one someone like me is an honour. This might be an impulsive request, but may I have this dance with you?"
To his words, tension suddenly built up within all who heard him.
Currently, this school was caught up in conflict between the elitists and the commoners. My lady had created a faction as well, but hasn"t clarified where they stood over this past month.
If she agreed to dance with the son of a commoner, the balance of power will be greatly disrupted.
From Libert"s perspective, this would become circ.u.mstantial evidence that they were publicly allies.
I did want to show that we were friendly, but careless contact like this could agitate the elitists.
It couldn"t be helped, but I needed to inform him that we were friendly so we could resolve this situation without causing a commotion.
–the moment I thought that.
"I finally found you!"
The cheerful voice of a girl suddenly resounded out.
Immediately after I turned towards the voice"s direction, I felt my entire body freeze up. Standing there while wearing a pale dress was a bluish-black haired girl. It was the heroine that shouldn"t be here.
"–Cyril, please dance with me!"
She asked me for a dance before I could even ask myself why.
I couldn"t understand this.
At this moment, the daughter of a Viscount house had requested a dance from a mere butler. Just like when Lady Sophia was asked for one by a commoner, the surroundings were suddenly filled with tension.
I wish she was more aware of the influence her words had considering her status.
"…Cyril, are you going to dance with her?"
Lady Sophia whispered that.
…or rather, the lights from her eyes had disappeared and they were starting to turn into a red colour.
She"s falling into darkness, she"s falling into darkness!
No! Calm down, things are still okay, I can still fix this!
I"m a butler, as well as the person who runs this event. Of course it was impossible for me to dance with the partic.i.p.ants. Things will naturally resolve themselves if I can just say that.
"My apologies but–"
I opened my mouth to speak, but had lost my words at the sight of who was drawing near. On reflex, I inadvertently swallowed my saliva.
They came from the other side of Alicia.
With the crowd splitting into two, they made room for the second prince and his two followers to approach us.
He rushed over with a bouncing gait and the innocent smile that captured many of the game"s players.
"Sophia, please dance with me!"
He then presented his right hand towards my lady.
You"ve got to be kidding me! I understand that she"s cute enough to lift anyone"s spirits, but if you really are one of this country"s princes, then read the air a little! Don"t think you"ll be allowed to just innocently laugh this off because you"re a twelve year old child!
No… don"t get upset. I"m Cyril. As the exclusive butler serving Lady Sophia, I can get through this situation easily… I will survive this, definitely… I swear it!
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Translated by KuroInfinity at