Chapter 148

Although I was invited to join Princess Seraphine’s student council cabinet, I didn’t feel particularly flustered by it.

I could somewhat understand from our recent conversation that she wasn’t genuinely interested in recruiting me for the student council.

‘She’s targeting Ethan.’

The current Ethan Richard Blackwood would be quite a useful candidate for her potential student council cabinet.

Good looks, a good family background, and his personality… well, at least, it seems quite good on the surface.

Although he currently doesn’t have many noticeable followers as he hasn’t formed or joined any factions yet, it would only be a matter of time before he enters someone’s student council cabinet.

…Especially if he joins under someone like Seraphine, who has already built her own faction to some extent.

This proposal is probably just one of her strategies to entice Ethan rather than trying to persuade me. It would be less noticeable to others to first recruit me, his exclusive maid, rather than directly proposing to Ethan…

‘Wait a minute. Something seems off here.’

“…Princess Seraphine.”

“Yes, Miss Lilith?”

“May I ask a question that might be disrespectful to you?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Have you perhaps mistaken the subject of your recruitment offer? If you intend to recruit both Young Master Ethan and me, wouldn’t it be better to persuade Young Master Ethan directly instead of me?”

“……”

Seraphine remained quiet for a moment, only showing a smile in response to my question.

To be honest, this didn’t make any logical sense.

Who would try to recruit a servant first when trying to bring a noble into their faction? It really doesn’t make sense. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Moreover, Ethan, whom Seraphine needs to persuade, is a young man in his prime. So much so that I had to suppress his boiling sexual desire about once a week at the mansion.

With Seraphine’s looks, she should be able to easily captivate a young man like him, so I couldn’t understand why she was bothering to make this recruitment offer to me.

“I haven’t mistaken the subject of the offer, Miss Lilith.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m making the recruitment offer to you, Miss Lilith. Of course, it would be nice if I could recruit Young Master Ethan as well, but even if that’s not possible, I intend to recruit you.”

“…Pardon?”

“…And if I can recruit just you, it will be much easier to bring in Young Master Ethan.”

“…?????”

“So, Miss Lilith, you just need to give me your opinion.”

Somehow, the more we talk, the more strange questions arise.

At this point, it didn’t seem like I’d get a different answer, even if I pressed further.

It was more rational to assume that Seraphine was hiding her true intentions and planning to use me to entice Ethan.

Nobles often hide their true feelings and say things differently from their actual intentions, and this is even more true for royalty.

Now, about the student council cabinet…

‘Looking at her proposal at face value, it’s not a bad offer.’

The members of the student council selected by Seraphine’s eye would likely be quite capable individuals.

There was a good chance she had already recruited some of the heroines from Luminor Academy. Their being heroine-level characters in “Luminor Academy” meant they were talented enough to pull their own weight at the very least.

Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, the final evaluation at the end of the second semester was the Hunting Festival in the Black Forest, so it was entirely possible to build relationships with other cabinet members and party with them in the said festival.

‘…But I haven’t even made proper contact with Lizzy yet, and if I take on student council duties too, I really won’t have any free time this semester…’

“Since you seem to be in deep thought, Miss Lilith, shall I reveal one person you might know who’s involved?”

“Yes?”

“Lizzy Lynn August. She has also agreed to participate in the student council lineup I’m putting together.”

“Miss August?”

“…It’s still conditional, though.”

If Lizzy has already decided to join Seraphine’s faction, I guess I don’t need to worry about that reason anymore.

Thanks to this, I somewhat gathered my thoughts and responded to Seraphine, implying that I would leave some room for consideration.

Of course, Ethan’s will would be more important than mine when it comes to actually joining the cabinet.

“For now, I’ll discuss it with Young Master Ethan. I can’t decide on such matters without his permission.”

“Yes, of course.”

There was a meaningful, strange smile at the corners of her lips.

After finishing the classes for today with Ethan and returning to the dormitory, I sat at my desk and mentally organized the tasks I needed to do.

Given the various events that suddenly started as soon as this semester began, I had to:

「Build a friendship with Agnes to resolve our snarling emotions and enter into a contract with a low-ranking spirit before the end of this semester.」

「Give an answer regarding Princess Seraphine’s recruitment to her future student council cabinet. (Need to discuss with Ethan)」

「Restore my relationship with Lizzy and ask her to make potions for use in the end-of-semester Hunting Festival. (Possible to make contact through Seraphine’s student council)」

These were the things I needed to deal with immediately. Among them, specifically with what I needed from Lizzy, I could only get a chance to get in touch with her if things went well with Seraphine.

Having to build relationships with three women in one semester… What is this, some kind of beautiful girl dating game… oh, come to think of it, it is a beautiful girl dating game.

It’s just unusual that I keep getting entangled with women in a position similar to the protagonist, even though I’m not the protagonist.

It couldn’t be helped. Luminor Academy was a game with such diverse choices that it was absolutely impossible to experience all of the heroines’ romance events in a single playthrough.

Just because there’s no protagonist doesn’t mean the events that would have happened to the original heroines will disappear, so the original stories continue to flow.

For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I kept getting involved and entangled in that position.

‘The protagonist must be busy with Serista and Selena this semester.’

The events of helping restore the trust of the fake saint, Serista, and sorting out the troublesome chores that the academy’s only elf, Selena, gets tangled up in were the focus of the second semester.

Judging by his actions in the first semester, he seemed to have a sense of responsibility, so he’d probably move towards conquering those two this semester.

He would start working on gaining favor to form the Demon King Subjugation Team in earnest from the third year, so until then, the orthodox play was to solidify the cards in his hand.

At first, I thought he was an unreliable guy just by looking at his name, Gyeongmwajogyegigwat, but after seeing his actions over the semester, I changed my mind to some extent.

I even felt that I should meet him at least once and have a proper conversation with a fellow transmigrator. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Anyway, it’s only the events that he originally decided not to get involved in that I’m getting caught up in, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Seraphine probably made an offer to the Hero before making a recruitment offer to me.

It shouldn’t cause any trouble to pick up the events that the Gyeongmwajogyegigwat guy has already given up on once. After all, this much wasn’t really interfering with that guy’s motives.

“Lilith, the bathroom’s free.”

“Young Master Ethan, I have something to discuss with you for a moment.”

“…What is it about?”

I discussed the offer Seraphine made today with Ethan, who had just finished bathing.

After hearing everything, Ethan first asked me this question in return:

“What do you want to do, Lilith?”

“Pardon?”

“…I’m just asking for reference. It’s not like I’m going to follow your opinion.”

Ah, so it was just for reference.

Well, Ethan would have his own thoughts, so he probably wouldn’t just follow what I say without any consideration.

Since he said my words wouldn’t particularly influence his decision-making, I also delivered the thoughts in my head to him without much burden and without holding back.

“For now, I don’t think it’s a bad proposal.”

“…Really?”

“Princess Seraphine has already formed her own independent group within the academy using her status and personal virtue. If there are no major problems, the princess’s faction will likely be maintained until she graduates from the academy.”

“Yes, I agree with that.”

“So, I think it’s best to join Princess Seraphine’s faction now when there are fewer people who could be called close associates. As the curriculum from the third year onwards becomes closer to practical training with virtually no departmental boundaries for most classes, there’s much more potential for development there than other factions that form connections within the same department.”

“Hmm…”

Ethan looked somewhat displeased.

Well, he’s the young master of the Blackwood family, so he probably isn’t too keen on joining someone else’s faction this early.

Having somewhat read Ethan’s feelings, I tried to pique his interest with another suggestion.

“Or, Young Master Ethan, it’s possible for you to start forming your own independent force now… but to be honest, I think it would be difficult to grow it as much as Princess Seraphine, who has already gained momentum.”

“That’s right. I think it’s a bit too late to do that now.”

If your goal was just to graduate from the academy, it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t form or join a faction. Most commoner students couldn’t even mingle with these noble factions to begin with.

…But Ethan was the young master of the Blackwood family, so it would be difficult for him to erase his presence and focus solely on graduation in that way.

Unless you had the overwhelming power to shut everyone’s mouth like Harold, you needed some level of faction as a noble. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Unlike ordinary commoner students who could live comfortably after graduation with just an academy diploma, noble society required maintaining relationships with the factions from that time even after graduating from the academy.

In that sense, the most efficient way for Ethan, the son of Duke Blackwood, to build connections now was to join a large faction that was favorable to him, and Seraphine’s faction was one of them.

Other than that, if there was a faction that had the potential to grow into a large one in the future and had shown a friendly attitude towards Ethan so far…

“If you don’t like Princess Seraphine’s faction, there’s also the option of building a relationship with the Hero, Gyeongmwajogyegigwat. Currently, the Hero is showing a favorable attitude towards the Master, so if you make a good impression on him early on, perhaps the Hero would also…”

“The princess would be better.”

“Pardon?”

“Tell the princess that I’ve responded positively, Lilith. I don’t really want to get close to that lecher… I mean, the Hero.”

“Understood, Young Master Ethan.”@@novelbin@@

What’s this? Did they have some kind of fight that I don’t know about?

I felt a bit uneasy seeing Ethan’s expression harden as soon as the Hero’s name was mentioned, but anyway, Ethan had chosen to join Seraphine’s cabinet.

It wasn’t a problem for me, who had remaining issues to resolve with the princess.