Surviving as a Villain at the Academy

9 – Dance With the Fairies (1)

Returning to the manor, I looked at Asti giggling away next to me.

“…..That fun?”

“Of cour~se. You wouldn’t know. The thing is, being under the church’s influence means feeling irritable from the moment you open your eyes to the moment you fall asleep. But now I only have to feel that irritation during class times.”

Asti spoke as if she was truly fed up. She had said that just living together with those church guys makes her feel bad all day long, even if they can’t recognize her.

But then again, now that I think about it, there’s another strange thing. No matter how weirdly I set things up, why didn’t Asti secure even a single manor using her abilities?

Considering the time she’s lived, she should be able to easily buy over three manors.

When I asked her that question containing my doubt, Asti asked me what I was talking about.

“Why would I specially go get a manor?”

“What do you mean, when you said it was uncomfortable? With your abilities, getting a manor should be easy, right?”

“Oh, that’s… I don’t have the talent for making money.”

She doesn’t have the talent for making money?

“For demons, the human world is a world full of all kinds of amusement and pleasure, you know? It’s a world we’ve come to play in, so why knot your head trying to make money and buy manors?”

“Then you could have found a decent guy to mooch off of and stayed at his manor, right? Someone who can freely manipulate human emotions wouldn’t have been unable to think of that.”

“Then it wouldn’t be fun.”

“Fun? Didn’t you say the irritation was intense?”

“More than that irritation, I found it fun mingling among humans and playing around. I told you, pleasure. If there are restraints, it’s not pleasure. Though I was planning to put up with the irritation until I snatched up a contractor I liked. But you snatched me up, so I had no choice but to give up the fun too.”

“Ah, right. At this point, it’s only been a short while since the second year started. And of course, I know very well who among the new first year students would make you feel irritation.”

The Saint. Adriane Deus.

…Why, wasn’t it like an ironclad rule of academy stories? The saint is unconditionally included as a heroine.

So I put her in. But I didn’t know Asti had been subtly feeling irritation at the Saint’s power.

“I think I roughly know the reason… Did you hear about the saint among this year’s new first year students?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Why?”

“I wasn’t interested in the first years. My biggest interest from the start was you.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, I had been enjoying this life itself as pleasure. I planned to maintain it until I snatched up a contractor I liked. But you snatched me up, so I had no choice but to give up the fun too.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, don’t forget the promise. A very big room. Got it?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. After getting permission from my father, I’ll give you the fourth biggest room in the manor if possible.”

“Nice.”

Asti smiled very contentedly. Unknowingly, her longing for playing around and a spacious room had deepened. It was only natural she couldn’t be satisfied with a mere student dormitory given she was a high demon.

*

“…So in short, because of today’s demon realm rift incident, the dormitory building where that girl was staying was half-destroyed, and unlike the other children with manors to live in, since she is a commoner with no place to stay, you want her to live here. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

Edmond Rancel looked at Frau with an astonished expression. Asti was sneakily looking at Edmond Rancel with a stiff expression.

“Are you in a position to be bringing a girl into the manor right now? Couldn’t you have guaranteed her lodging by giving your personal funds instead of it having to be the manor? And didn’t you say you liked Arias so much, yet now you’re bringing in some other girl out of nowhere?”

“I could do as father says, but with the various events in the capital recently, most high-class hotels and such buildings are fully booked, making things difficult. The other dormitories have no space available either.”

“It has to be a high-class hotel?”

“Father. Asti is a student I sponsored. You know that as well, don’t you? When I sponsored academy students, that I should take the utmost care of them. If I have Asti stay in some shabby inn instead of a luxury hotel, we’ll hear ridicule that the Rancel sponsorship only amounts to that much. And most of all… hasn’t public order in the capital been chaotic lately? Asti could end up in considerable trouble.”

“…..”

Edmond Rancel shut his mouth. He had no words. He knew right away his son’s argument was correct. As a Rancel, he must not sully the family honor.

It connected to treating generous sponsors well. Frau sponsoring academy students had been something he himself had praised as a good idea and told him to start right away. At that time, Frau had even emptied out his personal funds which he hadn’t been spending wastefully. It had started with such good intentions, so neglecting the management would in itself be an issue.

But the problem was that Asti was female. Hadn’t he just gotten into trouble over women? If word spread that he had brought a woman into the manor, he could tell what would happen without even thinking.

Simply that the rumors would say Frau Rancel wasn’t obsessed with Arias but with women.

“….I know well what worries Father has. You’re worried it will flare up unnecessarily as a woman issue, right?”

“Precisely.”

“You needn’t worry about that. I have no feelings for Asti whatsoever. Have I ever improperly treated any woman other than Arias until now, or tried to press them down with my status?”

“…..No.”

“I know that having made one mistake, Father cannot trust me. Frankly, even I wouldn’t have trusted myself. So, I will prove it through my actions. Isn’t that what I’m best at?”

“Can I trust you?”

“By all means, while Asti is at the manor, have a female knight from the knights be attached to her. Tell her to take my head if I do anything improper. Anyway, the knights’ training has all finished recently, right? We have a surplus of Rancel knights anyway, so there’s no issue assigning one to a special duty, right?”

“Hmm.”

With him pushing it that far, Edmond Rancel could only nod.

“Fine. I won’t specially attach a female knight. Because I’m giving permission by trusting you, so live up to that trust. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“If you cause an incident this time as well, there will be no leniency.”

“That’s obvious.”

“Good. Her name was Asti?”

“Yes, yes!”

Asti looked at Edmond Rancel with a nervous expression.

“You needn’t be that nervous. The harsh words I said in front of you were because I too am a father, so I was worried that my son’s reputation would become even worse because of you. If that caused you discomfort, I apologize.”

“Ah, no, I think it’s natural.”

“Yes. If Frau does anything to you, tell me directly.”

At his words, Asti shook her head.

“Ah, no. It’s true Frau made a big mistake, but thanks to him until now, I was able to attend the academy. If I didn’t have faith he wouldn’t do anything bad to me, I wouldn’t have come to this manor at all. Thank you for allowing me, Your Highness.”

Edmond nodded at Asti’s words.

Truly, it was a perfectly scored response. He quite liked someone so thorough in how they treated others. More than high or low status, there was something called inborn dignity, and in Edmond’s eyes Asti seemed someone born with such dignity.

That she stated her position clearly without faltering before him, she left quite a good impression as decent talent.

“I see. Understood. Frau.”

“Yes, Father.”

“You will personally select the room this child will stay in.”

“I understand. Thank you for allowing this.”

“Thank you for allowing me…!”

*

“…You slipped through that well. You speak well, don’t you? It’s like your tongue is greased.”

“I have to do at least that much. And you acted out a pretty innocent role well yourself.”

“hehehe. How long have I spent in the human world? Anyway, where’s the room I’ll be staying in?”

“I’ll show you soon.”

As I said, soon the room Asti would stay in at the manor appeared. When a very spacious, luxurious room appeared as I had guaranteed, a smile bloomed on Asti’s lips.

“Oh….”

After poking around the room for a while, she flopped down on the bed and rolled around. Seeing her like that, I opened my mouth to tell her the precautions for staying at the manor.

“Oh, let me tell you this now.”

“What is it?”

“The servants, feel free to boss them around as much as you want. I’ll give permission. And if any of the manor’s members are rude to you, tell me. I mean, you could deal with it yourself without telling me first of course, but if possible just leave it to me.”

“Of course I plan to do that. I don’t want unnecessary suspicion either. Oh, but you won’t kick me out saying the dormitory’s been rebuilt, right?”

“Unless you cause an incident before then, there’s no need to leave. Since Father didn’t say until when you could stay, that’s completely left to my discretion.

“Then I’ll have to show my contractor how great I am?”

“That’s right. I’ll have a task for you soon, so I hope you’ll cooperate.”

“What is it?”

“I’m going to open a rift.”

“Again? Where?”

“I’ll tell you soon.”

“So until then, nothing in particular to do, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Got it. Tell me when it’s time to work. For now, I’m gonna get some sleep. I was pretty tired from not being able to sleep well properly because of those church guys, so I need to sprawl out and sleep.”

“….Do as you like.”

Asti yawned and immediately went to sleep on the bed.