I briefly explained how and under what circumstances the other protection bracelet had been used.

The detailed verification was based on the Adventurers’ Guild’s assessment, which had already been reported to Temple, so what I said was credible. If she wanted to check further, she could just use the disposable protection bracelet.

“Royal Class…“

The president seemed as if she was just reminded again about the Royal Class’ overwhelming capabilities.

“That’s what one of us is capable of if they work on their own. The Magic Research Society is a group that brings all the magic major students of Royal Class together.”

Our claims weren’t entirely unfounded.

It was by far not enough evidence, but it definitely was a piece of evidence at least.

“I’m absolutely convinced that those guys that go beyond all common sense are definitely going to produce results that go against any form of common sense as well.”

The Royal Class wasn’t a place to which common sense applied. It was a place which gathered people who should never be judged by ordinary people’s standards.

It was a place where those bundles of absurdities called talents grew to do things that shouldn’t have been possible according to any form of plausibility.

The pinnacle of those absurdities were people like Ellen Artorius.

Harriet de Saint-Owan was also someone like that.

However, that was not sufficient enough to persuade them.

“If our achievements are insufficient, we could just make something like this or a bit greater than this for now.”

Our budget wasn’t exactly lacking. If we needed achievements to get a higher budget, we would opt to create some plausible items rather than absurd ones for a bit.

Christina’s Alchemy…

And Adelia’s Magic Crafting.

If I combined those two, we would automatically end up with some decent results.

“I just came here because I don’t like to waste time with unnecessary interim goals just to reach our main goal.”

However, the only thing that mattered to me was time.

Both the president and the vice-president fell silent.

“We’ll review it.”

“Thank you.”

As such, I made it possible to get our request reviewed even after I was told that they wouldn’t even glance at it because of our circumstances. Leaving those words behind, the student council president continued to stare at me.

“Just between us, you aren’t a magic major, right, Reinhardt?”

“…No. I’m not.”

‘What the?’

I had introduced myself, but I hadn’t told them what I was majoring in.

“Why are you the president of the Magic Research Society?”

“…Since those guys only know how to study, they need someone to make them do these kinds of things, so I’m the one who forces them to stay on task.”

“…You’re nosy. As expected.”

Nosy…

What did she mean by ‘as expected’?

“Do you know me?”

I tilted my head at her words that made it seem as if she already knew me beforehand.

“Yeah, we know all about you.”

The one who answered my question wasn’t the president, but the vice-president.

“We have to pull all these all-nighters because of what you did, after all.”

“…What do you mean by ‘because of what I did’?”

“The Orbis Class.”

“Ah.”

The Orbis Class incident…

Although it was rather obvious that the student council would know about it, what did they mean by saying that they had to pull all-nighters because of it?

The vice-president opened his mouth, a calm expression on his face, as he handed another handkerchief to Rain Kali, whose nosebleed had started again.

“As the Orbis Class had to undergo an emergency closure, the festival competition was canceled.”

“…Ah.”

“So all of us had to stay up all night to prepare something else to fill its spot.”

The Orbis Class’s emergency closure…

As a result, certain events had been canceled.

The student council was struggling to fill those holes with something else.

How should I put it?

That was what one called the butterfly effect.

Being confronted with the consequences of my actions in such unexpected places was quite uncomfortable for me, no matter how many times I experienced it.

So that was why the student council already knew me before they’d even met me.

Naturally, it was really obvious what kind of impression they had of me.

And yet I couldn’t believe that they didn’t even swear at me after I went to them to request more money.

I would have bashed my head in as soon as I went through that door if I were in their shoes.

In the end, I had to admit that those two were a lot more generous than I’d initially thought.

* * *

The student council hadn’t decided to give us more budget, they’d only said that they would review our request, so nothing was certain yet.

I wasn’t sure if the money would suffice, even if we were granted a budget increase. Anyway, the more money we got, the better.

It’s said that no one knows what might happen in the future, but there were just too many things I didn’t know.

In the first semester, I would have never guessed that I would go around collecting research funds in my second semester.

I had thought about doing various things outside of training, but running around to borrow money wasn’t one of those things.

If the student council’s answer was negative, I was wondering whether we should really just work on other projects to forcefully create achievements first.

Anyway, we had no other choice but to wait for the student council’s answer.

“Reinhardt, what happened?”

Upon returning to the Royal Class dormitory, I saw Olivia Lanze waiting for my return in the first-year dorm.

“…Why are you here?”

“What? I just wanted to see my future husband. Aren’t I allowed to come visit?”

‘I’m really upset!’

Saying something along those lines, she pretended to be sulky and turned around.

She was doing some crazy things again, but she was actually acting really cute, so I felt like I was about to go crazy myself!

The way the other students passing by looked at me was getting really weird again! I was trying to take care of my image those days, but every time she appeared, things took weird turns!

Liana, who also passed by us, was totally looking at me with an expression that seemed to scream, “Ah. That damn playboy’s at it again. Tsk tsk!”

“I never agreed to anything like that, and I don’t want to, either, so please stop doing these things in front of all the other students!”

“Oh, then, what if no one else sees us…?”

Goddamnit.

You’re just going to get scared again.

Isn’t that right?

“Oh. Okay. Shall we go somewhere private then?”

As I coolly murmured those things, Olivia Lanze flinched.

“Ah. Th-that’s… I was just… I was just kidding, just kidding!”

Olivia was making quite exaggerated gestures, seeming so nervous that she might actually faint if I really dragged her somewhere.

I knew how to handle that girl very well.

—I just had to act fierce. It was a different kind of fierce from how I acted towards Adelia and the others.

“So what is it?”

“W-well, I just wanted to ask if the budget negotiations went well… Why do you always get so mad when you see me…?”

She seemed a little upset. Genuinely upset.

Oh, was I a bit too harsh?

“I got them to say that they would review our request, though they declared that they would absolutely refuse it at first. Well, I don’t know what’ll happen yet.”

* * *

* * *

Knowing that it was something I was troubled by, it seemed like she’d come in person because she’d gotten curious as to how things were progressing.

Well, I shouldn’t be too harsh to her, considering that she is on my side.

I’d actually received a lot of help from her.

No, but she was still much too aggressive.

I noticed Ellen looking at us from afar.

I didn’t know why, but I felt pretty scared at that moment. I knew that she was just looking at us, but her expression seemed to scream, “Huh? Why is she here?”

I felt like I was about to panic!

Was I about to get killed?

I seriously felt like I was about to die.

I had no idea what reason might have caused it, but I was convinced that I would die that day for sure!

“I’ve been thinking about some things. Regarding your budget… There might actually be a different way you could get some money.”

Fortunately, Olivia didn’t continue to say strange things and changed the subject.

No, but…

A way to increase our budget?

How did that girl come up with something like that? While I didn’t know what kind of method it was, the more money we could get, the better, and it was Olivia Lanze who came up with that alternative way.

“What is it?”

“You could take donations.”

“…What?”

Never in my life would I have been able to come up with something like that

If you don’t have money, just take donations.

Just what line of thought was that?

* * *

No one was willing to invest in us.

Having our budget raised was also difficult…

So we should just get some donations.

Just what kind of nonsense was that?

Olivia said, “How about that? Aren’t I smart?” with a confident tone, her nose almost piercing the sky.

“…Well, It seems like you came up with that because religious groups make a lot of money that way. That won’t work.”

You don’t have any money? Then a good, pious, and rich believer will just give you some!

Was it only possible for someone who was part of such religious groups to have such out-of-the-norm ideas?

Was she unable to let go of that way of thinking even though she had already given up on her faith?

Olivia Lanze looked genuinely shocked at my words.

“You, you…You think… That I’m a complete idiot, don’t you…?”

She looked incredibly upset.

Olivia wore a tearful expression. No, how could her mood go up and down like a rollercoaster? As far as I knew, she definitely wasn’t that kind of person before.

I think it’s what one would call bipolar.

Olivia started pouting her lips in addition to her tearful expression.

“I was talking about the sponsorship group meeting, you idiot.”

“…Sponsorship?”

Seeming slightly excited, Olivia went, ‘Hmpf!’

What the hell were that girl’s actual character traits? She seemed like a strange amalgamation of all the character attributes one could find.

Sometimes she was cold and cool, other times she was super sweet, then she acted like a heroine of justices at times, and sometimes she was a complete ditz.

All those different attributes seemed to mix together quite a bit, which made it even crazier. Olivia crouched slightly with her cheeks puffed and her arms crossed. Soon, she started talking a little more.

“The Royal Class is run with Temple’s capital, but it also has its own sponsorship groups. The more free money one can get, the better, after all. Your club is in a similar situation, right?”

Sponsorship groups… I had no idea such things existed.

“Do a lot of rich people participate in that?”

“If they aren’t rich, why would they be part of something like that? The purpose of a sponsorship itself is to create connections with future talented individuals, Temple teachers, or the entire Royal Class in advance. I’ve been attending voluntarily since my fourth year, so I’m not sure how things go for students of the lower years. Anyway, that’s how it is.”

One could participate in sponsorship meetings starting from the fourth year.

The Gate Incident would happen when the main characters reached their third year, so it’d never even appeared in the original.

“It’s not just rich people, but there are also many influential figures like members of the Magic Association, some prestigious knights, and other similarly influential people attending. They can provide you with personal sponsorships as well as sponsorships intended for the Temple and the Royal Class as a whole.”

Sponsorship meetings were held to support, recruit, or create connections with the Empire’s future outstanding talents. When I thought about it, it made sense that something like that existed.

The best talents of the entire Empire were gathered at Temple. If they were students majoring in magic, they would go to the Magic Association, and those majoring in combat would join places like the Knights Templar. What about supernatural power users? They would also join a knight corps. Anyway, they would receive recruitment offers from places that needed them.

—The same went for students majoring in non-combat subjects.

A smart guy like Louis Ankton might be treated even better, actually.

“That’s why I was planning on going to the sponsorship meeting this time to look for someone that might want to support your club, and here you are treating me like an idiot.”

It seemed like she had been deeply shocked by my saying she could only make such absurd claims because she had been part of a religious group that’d received a lot of donations.

‘Wow, he thinks I’m a real dumbass.’ That was what she thought.

Right, I really went too far. She was a real angel who wanted to try getting money from the sponsorship meeting for my sake.

“Well… I-I’m sorry, I was the one in the wrong.”

“So what if you’re sorry?”

“…What?”

“Do you think it’s the end just because you said you’re sorry?”

Olivia tapped her cheek.

“You should give me a kiss.”

“Oh, ** off!”

In the end, it still turned out like that!