When he brought his finger to her nose, she was still breathing. Although her complexion was a bit pale, she didn't look life-threateningly ill.
"Take her to Bless Hall."
"I will."
"Apply red makeup to make it look like she's drunk."
"Do we have to go that far? If she returns heavily drunk in broad daylight, Bella's dignity..."
"No one even imagined that evil beings could be hiding in the Academy. There's no harm in being cautious."
Ah, and since she needs to smell like alcohol, sprinkle some on her face too. Gerhard started to take out a rather expensive wine from the storage cabinet in a corner of the sealed room but hesitated.
"Since we're just spraying it on her body, it doesn't need to be premium quality."
"How much does that cost..."
"It's 20 gold."
"They sell cheap wine at taverns."
Gerhard called someone to buy a bottle of wine. Luina prepared to carry Bella.
"Do you have a spare robe? No matter what, we should at least cover her face as much as possible."
"There is."
A clerk brought a robe, and Luina covered Bella with it.
"By the way, since when have you been thinking about this plan?"
"Since I found traces of evil beings through Veriana. They wouldn't end it with just one attempt."
"Don't forget your promise."
"Promise?"
"You promised to lend a hand whenever dealing with demons."
Luina's eyes sank coldly.
"I won't leave alone the evil beings who dared to endanger Bella."
"Yes."
Shortly after, Luina sprinkled the wine that the clerk had bought all over Bella's body, then carried her away.
"...Using Janice and the Order's power to erase the demonic energy from all infected humans. As discreetly as possible."
This way, the chaos the evil beings desired could be minimized.
"The best would be to prevent the demon's descent itself..."
Unless the prophecy book revealed more, he still didn't have a sense of how to do that.
"For now, I need to focus on what's next."
The Yacht Club. That's where the evil beings will begin their full-scale activities.
On the yacht owned by the Golden Turtle Company, which Gerhard lends to the club free of charge and operates, someone disguised as an employee of the Golden Turtle Company attempts to kill Aint.
"In the end, cooperation with Aint is essential to stop the demons."
But suddenly bringing up demons would be nothing short of madness. It would be fortunate if it didn't arouse Aint's suspicion.
"All matters require preliminary work."
The demons will try to kill Aint or at least isolate him from the students through this incident, but the opposite will happen.
Aint will live, and Gerhard will openly become his patron.
"While investigating suspicious individuals who had infiltrated the company, I discovered they had infiltrated as yacht staff. But I didn't know they were evil beings."
That's how they'll come to witness the evil beings together with Aint.
Diving into the detailed settings would make it much more complex, but to summarize, it was like this. Knowing the future made setting the stage not too difficult.
Gerhard's eyes sank coldly.
***
'No, I just felt a sudden chill.'
Aint shook off the sudden chill and focused again on the lecture.
"So this creature called a cyclops, despite having only one eye..."
The subject was "Exploration of Magical Beasts and Monsters." It was a mandatory course and an important five-point subject.
'Not bad.'
Perhaps thanks to his struggle against the formidable water dragon for survival, he had digested nearly half of the residual magical power from the Saint Bird's heart, which he couldn't fully absorb even with Lord Gardner's help.
'And I also gained a reliable patron.'
Aint was aware of this point. While he had approached them humbly, it would be a mistake to expect much consideration.
'Then the best would be to let Senior Gerhard directly witness the existence of demons. But do demons really exist?'
Aint had never seen demons or their followers, not after obtaining Gardner, not even in his entire life.
Gardner asserted.
<...Though not all of them would.>
'What do you mean by that?'
'...Good heavens.'
Aint was shocked. He knew the Goldenheim merchants were terrible, but he never dreamed they would sell to demons.
'I understand.'
Listening to various stories, the lecture time quickly ended. Someone approached Aint as he was organizing his textbooks.
"Aint."
"Balrosi."
"What are you doing after the lecture?"
"I don't have any specific plans. Just training, I guess?"
"Always diligent."
Balrosi smiled good-naturedly.
'Honestly, I wonder about that too.'
Balrosi Viston was clearly a good person. But one couldn't simply avoid suspicion just because someone was good.
Especially since Aint carried the Armian name, and the current emperor bore the Schwaben name.
Why would the heir to the Viston family not be wary of the Schwaben imperial family?
'Of course, the Viston family is almost on par with the imperial family...'
But there would still be discord, so why approach despite that?
He wondered why Balrosi was building a friendship with Aint, who had nothing but the faded glory of his family.
But he couldn't ask directly, so he could only ponder it internally.
"Then would you like to come somewhere with me after this?"
"Where?"
Balrosi took out a small note. It was an invitation.
"You haven't joined a club yet, right?"
"Not yet."
Clubs were gatherings of students encouraged by the Academy. Typically, students with similar interests gathered for hobbies or academics.
"Yacht Club?"
"Yes. It's a place where you can only join with a recommendation from an existing member. With an invitation, you can bring one person along."
He explained that the main members of the club were children of prestigious nobles or merchant companies.
"I received an invitation for this month's gathering recently, and if possible, I'd like to go together with you."
"With me?"
"Yes."
Gardner was right. Most high nobles were wary of Armian because they were mindful of Schwaben.
Moreover, the prince of Schwaben was also in the Yacht Club.
'Just how many arrangements did the late emperor leave?'
Aint nodded at Gardner's words.
"Does that mean you'll come?"
Balrosi misunderstood this as an answer to him, but there was no need to correct him.
"Yes."