It had been more than a month since Alexa reentered the Grand Academy.

  So far, things have remained normal. But under that veneer of normalcy, Alexa and her allies were on the move. They had been observing Henry thoroughly, especially the people he met with and worked with.

  Considering the threat he posed, any effort wasted at blunting his plans was potentially fatal. Luckily, when Alexa checked the novel, it seemed that Henry had delayed a lot of his plans for a good while.

  While nothing actually changed with the outcome and the course of events, she had time, or more accurately, she was buying time.

  Each time they got close to ‘discovering’ Henry, it seemed like he became more cautious, more subdued, and everything else. Alexa even joined his class and decided to cause trouble, utilizing her spoiled brat reputation to her advantage by facing Henry under the pretense of wanting to learn more about combat magic.

  Her goal was to make him question her intentions, so that he’d be off balance.

  Of course, she only did it to shake up Henry, but it seemed that her acting skills were so good that she masked her true goals. Now, she learned that Henry once again delayed his actions against the Regency Council.

  I just need to keep up the pressure. Alexa thought, as she merrily walked through the hallways to get to her next class. But of course, don’t push too much~

  She didn’t want to spook him so much that he sprang into action while in the Grand Academy’s premises. Of course, should he do that, the entire conspiracy he was planning would fall apart, but chances were high that Alexa would die in the process.

  She wanted to poke him bit by bit to keep him on his toes, but not so much that he would suddenly attack her with his sword and slice her in half.

  That would be quite unfortunate—

  “Eep—!” Alexa squeaked, when she bumped into something.

  No, it was someone.

  “L-lady Alexa!” Adele nearly sprang to save her from behind, before she froze. “O-oh…Sir Henry…”

  “Sir Henry?” Alexa looked back at Adele as she stepped back a bit, then he looked forward. Then up. He loomed over her, and he was so intimidating that Alexa instinctively hugged the grimoire she was holding nervously as she retreated. “U-uh…”

  “Apologies, Your Highness,” the instructor lowered his head with a bow, before stepping to the side. “I turned the corner, and didn’t see you.”

  “S-sorry…um, it was my fault. I was rushing to class,” Alexa stammered, feeling like she would die here and now. She panicked further when she realized she was nervous.

  Oh no. Did I blow up my cover? Crap, crap, I look totally suspicious now, don’t I?

  “You two ladies should proceed then,” Henry said, his tone still submissive, as was expected when facing royalty, especially one with a rising reputation. “I’ll be on my way too.”

  “I see,” Alexa tried to smile, regaining her composure. “We’ll be on our way too then. See ya!”

  Alexa pulled Adele to follow her, but then, her lady-in-waiting pulled her back, before whispering in Alexa's ear.

  “Our next class is with Sir Henry,” Adele explained. “You’re going in the wrong direction”

  “Right, I forgot. But then if he is then why is he also going to the wrong…oh, he’s just going to the bathroom.”

  Alexa stared blankly in the direction where Henry walked, seemingly in a rush, before disappearing on the side when he reached the nearest restroom for men.

  I can’t believe I panicked over nothing.

  Knowing what your opponent could do sure was a headache sometimes. Alexa was so unnecessarily fearful of the damned peasant, that she almost blundered!

  Huffing to herself, Alexa and Adele soon proceeded to their next class’ room.

  +++

  “Sir Wilhelm,” Phoebe called out as she opened the door to Wilhelm’s office, which had been repurposed into a laboratory and workstation of sorts.

  Phoebe?

  Wilhelm raised his head from his seat, turning to Phoebe as she bowed, before gesturing for her to come in, leaving the spellbook he was working on at the side.

  Phoebe tilted her head as she peered into it.

  “What..are you doing?” Phoebe curiously asked.

  “I’m just mass producing defensive glyphs,” Wilhelm said, cracking his knuckles before twisting his neck a bit to combat the soreness after hours of work. “What are you doing here?”

  “Um…I just wanted to ask a question.”

  “A question?”

  “Mhm.”

  “Alright. Shoot.”

  “About Lady Alexa,” Phoebe played with her fingers a bit. “I’ve noticed, she’s been quite close with Sir Henry.”

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  “Ah.”

  “I just wanted to ask if that’s…safe?”

  “You’re worried?”

  “Yes.”

  Wilhelm chuckled, as he turned back to his spellbook. He had encouraged Alexa to do the same—to create more glyph papers on a spellbook in case she needed it in a confrontation. They divided the Archdemon’s blood for this purpose; after all, they had enough to produce at least a thousand pages of glyph papers.

  Yes—he too was quite worried about Alexa. He had been helping her to get the skill ‘Glyph Control’ too because she’d definitely need it once the time came, but for now, she’d have to rely on what she had in case Henry acted.

  In other words, she’d be dead in seconds should things go wrong.

  “Look,” Wilhelm took the ink bottle from his desk, playing with it lazily with a smile. “If you’re so worried about her, you can just join Adele and Alexa in Henry’s class, no?”

  “...I thought about that,” Phoebe nodded. “But I’m not sure if Sir Henry will…wait.”

  “What is it?”

  “He told me he’d be interested in having me in his class back then.”

  “Ah. I remember that too.”

  “You did.”

  “Yep. You should join your friends.”

  “I see. I’ll apply for his class then.”

  Wilhelm nodded. Henry, as a part of the Combat Tactics Department, teaches Anti-Demon Self Defense. It was a straightforward subject, basically a practical instruction course about how to fight every type of demon out there on your own.

  Wilhelm on the other hand mainly taught Anti-Demon Tactics, which was quite different, as it was focused on the perspective of officers.

  Respectively, Wilhelm teaches students under his wing how to command troops to effectively fight demons in a conventional combat setting, while Henry teaches students how to use their swords or wands against individual demons.

  It’ll certainly be something that Phoebe needs to learn.

  Of course, there were standard magecraft subjects that she and Alexa must be taking already, but those were about normal magic. Demons were different creatures than normal humans and monsters. While you could use a general fireball for example against them, fireballs with the right formulae and combination of light magic and fire magic would work better.

  Not that Henry will be able to improve on Phoebe’s casting abilities…as Saint, her Holy Magic must be at another level beyond us puny mortals, but still…

  “Good luck then,” Wilhelm said. “And be careful.”

  “Of course. I’m doing this to keep an eye out for Lady Alexa and Adele.”

  “Still, try your best to absorb some things.”

  Potential enemies can help you from time to time, after all.

  +++

  “Alright. Follow the spell formula down to the letter. Then, commence volley fire. Make ready!”

  Alexa felt herself stiffening up from Henry’s orders. They were now outside of the main building of the Grand Academy, right in the mage practice grounds near its west wing.

  Beside her, her classmates all held their staves nervously. Alexa too held a standardized staff used by casters in the Defense Forces. The focus crystal in front of it apparently improved damage by automatically optimizing the spell formula that a user cast on it.

  “Take aim!” Henry bellowed.

  Alexa and Adele both aimed their staves at training dummies in front of them. They were made out of wood, cut into the shape of those demonic wolves that she remembered during the Battle of Perlenstadt. Apparently, the Defense Forces denoted them as D rank demons, named as ‘Wolgrams’.

  They were extremely capable, their claws were enough to slash a person with C+ constitution stats with ease, and their fangs could definitely rip apart most people, like Alexa, in one bite. They also had the ability to fire a powerful firebolt as a ranged attack.

  With their speed, agility, and wolf pack tactics, it was no wonder even the Royal Guard knights were overrun and overwhelmed by these creatures. The only reason Alexa managed to fight them off during the Battle of Perlenstadt was because of Wilhelm’s glyph designs and the glyph papers powered by Archdemon blood that she used.

  Without it…she’d have to…

  “Fire!”

  As instructed, Alexa and her classmates opened fire at the wolgram dummies in front of them. Each one was enchanted to be of the same durability as those monsters, so their goal was to destroy the dummy designated to each student in one or two shots.

  Otherwise, as Henry said, if they failed by then—‘then you’re demon food’.

  Adele managed to destroy the training dummy assigned to her in her first shot. On the other hand, Alexa frowned after her first fireball. The damned thing resisted her. She fired another one, then another one, then another one, slowly chipping at the wolf in front of her.

  Until her fifth fireball, the wolgram dummy was finally burned to a crisp.

  “Haah…” Alexa smiled a bit in delight. “I did—”

  “Your Highness,” Alexa felt a cold gloved hand over her shoulder. “You’re demon food by now.”

  “A-ah! Sir Henry!” Alexa flinched, his grim voice scaring the heavens out of her. “Please, don’t just appear behind me like that! I felt like my heart popped!”

  “Forgive me then,” the instructor bowed. “But, I must inform you that you need to optimize your anti-demon fireball formula.”

  “...I’m,” Alexa looked down. “I’m trying, okay?”

  “I’ve heard that you’ve killed a lot of those wolgrams during the battle for this city,” Henry said, looking at Alexa neutrally. “Is that true?”

  Alexa’s eyes sparkled.

  “Indeed!” She then puffed her chest and proudly looked at Henry, seeing an opportunity to show off her acting skills and ‘intimidate him’ as she intended. “With my paper glyphs, the finest out there, I managed to kill dozens of these monsters easily. But, I wish to replicate that with my magic too.”

  “Interesting…”

  Alexa peered closer to Henry.

  Hehe, time to keep pushing. Maybe I should act like I’m suspicious of him now? Change my demeanor a bit? Will that make him start questioning me again? But what if I go too far?

  This guy planned to kill Alexa, but for now, he seemed like he was enjoying himself a bit too much at teaching someone whom he must see as a ‘weakling’. That kinda annoyed Alexa, so she wanted to intimidate him more.

  But, before she could do that, Adele pulled her, while Henry walked away to talk to other students.

  “...Lady Alexa,” Adele whispered. “Do you wish to go to the restroom?”

  “What are you—oh.”

  She must be trying to pull Alexa out of here. Alexa nodded, and the two got permission from Henry, before running away. When they were out, they went to a deserted hallway and Adele spoke to Alexa in hushed whispers.

  “I think he’s catching up on us,” Adele worriedly said. “When he looked at you, it was as if he wanted to kill you there.”

  “W-what? I totally didn’t notice.”

  “I’m not sure…but I think you should cut back on ‘observing’ him,” Adele cautiously looked at the hallways to check if anyone was around, before shaking her head. “I think Sir Alfred and Sir Wilhelm will do better at this job.”

  “It’d be even more suspicious though if we suddenly pulled out of his class,” Alexa said.

  Suddenly, someone appeared behind her. It was Phoebe.

  “That’s why I’ll join you two. Let’s deal with him, together!”