"—Well then, allow me to introduce our newest students to everyone."

Presiding over the a.s.sembly proceedings, Mitsuki's voice resounded within the dimmed hall.

Standing on the stage with Mitsuki under the spotlight were ten-odd girls dressed in Midgard's uniform.

Including mine, all eyes of the students in the audience were directed at the stage in antic.i.p.ation.

"This brings back memories, Monon.o.be."

Sitting on my right, Iris commented quietly.

"Yeah... They're the first batch of new students since Tia."

I kept my voice low and answered while looking at Tia, who was sitting on my left. Tia averted eye contact in embarra.s.sment.

"Please don't recall what happened then. Tia caused so much trouble for everyone..."

"Yeah—But no one minds anymore."

Stroking Tia's head, I replied.

Back then, Tia considered herself a dragon and had impulsively used trans.m.u.tation against Mitsuki when she denied Tia's ident.i.ty as a dragon.

As a result, the majority of the students feared Tia and she was not placed into a homeroom with other girls of her age. Instead, she was a.s.signed to Brynhildr Cla.s.s where me and the others belonged. But after the Basilisk battle, Tia's interactions expanded and during the school festival, she demonstrated to me that she had made close friends.

"Hmm... Thanks. But Tia is very worried whether they'll mess up like Tia."

Tia cast a gaze of worry at the girls on the stage.

They had started introducing themselves in sequence from right to left. It was now a southeast Asian girl's turn. Since she was unable to use Midgard's lingua franca of j.a.panese, Mitsuki spoke on her behalf.

Including this girl, more than half of the new students were new to me.

However, I already knew the four on the left. These four stood out in many ways, attracting attention from the students as soon as they got on stage.

—Very conspicuous, as one would expect.

Like Tia, I was very worried about them.

It could very well turn into even worse chaos than Tia's time.

To prevent these four from standing out too much, Princ.i.p.al Charlotte had enrolled them together with the other new students whose arrival to Midgard had been delayed by NIFL's imposed inspection.

—Please, don't say anything weird.

Seeing it was her turn next, I prayed in my heart.

"—Next is Kili-san."

The instant Mitsuki spoke this name, a clamor rose up in the hall.

"Everyone must have seen it on television previously—She had sought Midgard's protection in order to defy NIFL's intervention. Due to many things happening in the Princ.i.p.ality of Erlia, it took plenty of effort... However, I am extremely pleased for the fact that she could finally come to Midgard."

While presenting the official story for why Kili transferred, Mitsuki grimaced slightly. Well, this was only a subtle change only I could see. The other students most likely missed it.

As the student council president, she was obliged to deliver diplomatic statements to suit occasions, but this time, the "lie" was a bit big.

Kili had transferred into Midgard before under the ident.i.ty of Tachikawa Honoka. The fact that Honoka and Kili were the same person was not disclosed and ordinary students probably would not question it... But to Mitsuki, she was probably having quite mixed feelings.

Refraining from reading out the full name of Kili Surtr Muspelheim was probably to prevent the audience from a.s.sociating her with the dragon-wors.h.i.+ping cult, the Sons of Muspell.

From the perspective of ordinary students, Kili was an activist against NIFL's unfair treatment of Ds.

As long as Kili maintained it, this cover story would be perfect.

"Nice to meet you, everyone. My name is Kili. I am very happy to be here at Midgard and would like to get along with all of you. However—"

Kili started with an ordinary self-introduction, but halfway through, she suddenly altered her tone.

Her exuded aura changed. After narrowing her eyes to gaze sharply at the students, she declared in an ice-cold voice:

"—You all know Monon.o.be Yuu, right? He is mine. If anyone dares make a move on him, I won't forgive her, got that? Please remember this well, everyone."

After issuing this warning, Kili produced a business-like smile.

The entire hall fell silent. Recovering first, Mitsuki coughed.

"Umm... Kili-san has just made some inappropriate and easily misconstrued statements and she will be properly educated afterwards. Until her twisted mindset is corrected, I shall have her write repentance essays nonstop, so please do not worry, everyone."

Mitsuki stared at Kili while speaking in a commanding tone of voice.

"Oh no... even more repentance essays!?"

Kili grumbled anxiously but Mitsuki ignored her and started to introduce the next new student.

"Next is Ritra-san. She is Kili-san's cousin. Due to the discovery of Ds, the ability to trans.m.u.te matter, in the family, she has transferred in as well."

The one being introduced was the girl two sizes smaller than Kili—Vritra.

Of course, she was not a D and Ritra was an alias. However, there was no way in h.e.l.l we could call her the black dragon—"Black" Vritra.

To be honest, we also had the option of keeping her in confinement, but Iris said "I'd feel so sorry for Vritra-chan if she had to watch the house alone!"

—Hence, enrolling her as a student made it easier to keep her under supervision. Thus, we transferred her into the school according to the procedure for Ds.

Bored, Vritra stretched and said:

"Yawn... Oh, hmm, I am Ritra. That is all."

As though saying that was enough of a self-introduction, she looked at Mitsuki. The students were looking at the unmotivated Vritra in puzzlement. They most likely pegged her as a different kind of weirdo compared to Kili.

Mitsuki sighed lightly and moved on to introducing the remaining two.

"Then next is the youngest student ever in Midgard's history, s.h.i.+on Zwei s.h.i.+nomiya-san!"

As soon as she spoke, everyone's gaze gathered on the tiny girl. This was followed by cheers of "so cute!" resounding all over the hall.

Trembling, s.h.i.+on held the hand of the unintroduced girl beside her.

From appearance, s.h.i.+on looked even younger than Tia, pretty much early elementary school age. However, her actual age was not so. Counting from the time when she had awakened at the Asgard lab, less than a month had pa.s.sed. Although her apparent age was what was recorded in the family registry, I was pretty certain that students younger than s.h.i.+on were not going to show up again.

"i am s.h.i.+on Zwei s.h.i.+nomiya... Nice to meet yoU all."

Nervously and politely, s.h.i.+on introduced herself.

Although her j.a.panese lacked a little fluency and her motions were slightly stiff, this made her even more adorable to everyone. Cheers arose again. Frightened, s.h.i.+on hid behind the girl next to her.

Seeing this, Mitsuki continued to explain s.h.i.+on's situation.

"I believe all of you must be very curious about her family name. s.h.i.+on-san is s.h.i.+nomiya-sensei's relative, but due to her complicated family circ.u.mstances and the fact that her mental stability depends on staying close to her current guardian, there is some risk involved—"

Mitsuki finished slowly and came to the girl whom s.h.i.+on was hugging tightly.

The hall went into a clamor again. After all, the girl on the left end was the most striking from the very beginning.

Normally speaking, Kili, who had appeared on television before, and s.h.i.+on, the youngest, would attract the most attention. However, there was a great difference between this girl at the end compared to all the other girls standing on the stage.

She—was dressed in a male uniform.

"...Consequently, as a special exception, we have hired s.h.i.+on-san's guardian as Midgard staff so that they can live together. But just as you can see, she is of the same age as we are and similarly ent.i.tled to the right of education. After careful consideration, I have authorized her enrollment in my capacity as student council president. Perhaps some of you might have doubts about a non-D becoming a student of this school, but please try to understand."

Mitsuki emphasized the word "her."

The clamor grew more and more intense, but when the introduced cross-dressing girl and s.h.i.+on took a step forward, the hall quieted down.

Everyone was waiting for her to speak.

"I am Zwei's guardian—Jeanne Hortensia."

After she—Jeanne Hortensia—spoke in a dignified voice to introduce herself, the entire venue erupted with noise.

Rather than a commotion echoing throughout the hall, they were screams. However, these screams were not emitted out of fear or surprise.

I had heard such screams on television many times—Adolescent girls screaming from the bottom of their hearts at the sight of their idols.

In other words... This was what people called a fan scream.

"W-What's going on?"

I could not help but cover my ears and look around me. All the girls in the other homerooms were worked up in excitement with blus.h.i.+ng cheeks.

Also feeling puzzled by this reaction, Jeanne hastily continued her self-introduction.

"U-Umm, I am a girl despite dressing like this! I wear a male uniform because it feels more rea.s.suring—"

Jeanne emphasized her gender as a girl but the fan screaming grew even louder.

Yells of "so handsome!" could be heard all over the place.

"Jeanne-chan is so popular."

Seated on my right, Iris remarked poignantly.

"...Yeah. Dressed like that, Jeanne undoubtedly looks like a young and handsome man."

Platinum blonde hair, a prim and proper face, a slender physique—This appearance could easily rival that of idol celebrities.

Regardless of gender, Jeanne's "beauty" was very eye catching.

"Such a far cry from my debut."

Iris looked at me from the side while I was muttering to myself.

"Eh, Monon.o.be... Don't tell me you're jealous?"

"O-Of course not."

I frantically denied it. Back when I went up on the stage, the audience was eyeing me with a complicated mixture of curiosity and wariness. Fan screaming was nothing to be jealous of. Indeed, nothing to be jealous of at all.

Even so, Iris smiled and comforted me.

"Don't worry. To me, umm... You're the most handsome, Monon.o.be."

Seeing Iris blus.h.i.+ng, my face turned red all at once.

Noticing that, Tia hugged my arm on the left.

"Tia thinks Yuu is the most handsome too! Tia is a good wife and will never be unfaithful! Yuu can rest a.s.sured!"

"...Th-Thank you."

I thanked Tia but her words caused my chest to tighten.

Iris and Tia were being considerate to me on their own, but I was wavering from their words and behavior. Didn't that make me unfaithful to them? Still, they permitted it.

—This was no good.

I did not know what in particular was wrong or how to rectify it.

However, feeling guilty about this, I was definitely not properly confronting the girls' feelings for me.

I must take responsibility. I must do what I can and do it well.

But when facing mutually exclusive wishes, I became lost and unable to take any action.

Hence, as I was now, my resolve was incomplete.

In all sorts of ways, I probably—I must become even stronger.