I disliked teenagers.

Friendliness was my passive skill. I was friendly to teenagers, but I disliked them.

They were prone to mistakes, hasty for achievements, hard to understand, and easy to die. It was the worst bunch of qualities one could ask for in a soldier.

Even the Duke of Blood and Iron thought I would desert this academy and had to trick me into joining.

I was not blind. The events that led to Lumine Ador locking herself up all happened in front of me.

We were out taking pictures.

Professor Barnum ran into us.

He seemed perturbed when he saw Lumine, but that did not affect her.

Next, I called her a friend. Not just any friend, but a best friend. Playful as it may be, that was enough to make Lumine dash off.

If the problem was something tangible, then I would have been able to handle it easily. But clearly, the issue lay in Lumine’s past.

If she continued like this for long enough, the Empire might get suspicious. And even if she avoids that suspicion, she would never really get along with the other students.

It was troublesome.

I crossed my hands as I strolled around the academy grounds yet again with the camera in my hands.

Lumine… a priestess whose blessings bring immense fortune and success. She was the hand of Midas for more than a few influential people in this world.

I had a lot to gain by bringing her to my side.

Progress was slow right now, but as my plans took shape, I would need a lot of things. Money, influence, power. While I steadily built all of it up, it was never enough.

Not to mention, there was always a hindrance that stopped me from gaining any kind of influence. It wasn’t something I disliked, I welcomed it.

There was more than one way to bring Lumine to my side. If she was truly trying to shut herself away from the world, extending her a helping hand would take me a long way.

I could make her dependent on me, and then move not just her and the Lunar sect, but all the followers of the sect as well—

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My thoughts came to a halt.

A girl had just stepped out of a bakery. She had black hair, twitching cat ears, and held a bag of cookies in her hands.

image [https://i.imgur.com/pdhG4kT.jpg]

Iaso, the girl, snapped her head side to side as she looked for anyone who might know her.

“I-a-so!” I called her name out and raised the camera. Iaso shook her head around again, startled at the sudden voice.

What a dork. She wasn’t looking behind her.

“Pspsps!”

Iaso immediately turned back and found me. The cat call always worked.

I waved and gestured at her to stay still for the picture as I pressed the shutter. Iaso, though, had other plans. Her face contorted in rage and jumped over at me.

“You bastard! Stop mocking me!”

“W-wait! The picture, you’ll ruin it!”

Iaso swiped her claws at me and I stepped back to dodge them. The picture was completely ruined.

I kept dodging and she kept trying to attack before we both ran out of breath and stopped.

“Haah… haah… why do you always do that?”

“It works on cats.”

“Professor, if I didn’t like you… haah.. I would have buried you in the ground...”

“I am honored.”

Iaso opened the paper bag slightly and extended it toward me. She liked the cookies way too much, so I refused. Why was she hiding it if she didn’t mind getting caught? Or did she not mind getting caught since it was me? It was a puzzle that was best left untouched.

Iaso and I decided to head back together. She asked about the camera, and I gladly explained. She wasn’t very impressed, the idea that it was just an inferior, almost ugly version of portraits seemed prevalent.

The world had magic, so I could understand why they had a bigger appetite for ‘portraits appearing on the film with a button’ than in my old world.

“Professor, what is happening with that Lumine girl?”

Iaso dropped the question at an odd time. Right when I was conflicted about what to do.

I put up both my hands behind my head and sighed.

“She seems troubled,” I said. “She hasn’t left the room for days now, right?”

Iaso shrugged.

“She asks the maids to bring her food, and avoids everyone else…”

It was troublesome.

Iaso turned her gaze away from me with a smile. “You know, professor. I was thinking about what you said, about needing a hand.”

I stopped in my tracks. Iaso didn’t notice me as she continued walking.

“You were right,” she said. “If you hadn’t helped me back then… I wouldn’t have survived…”

Iaso turned on her feet. She turned to me with a bright smile. A very bright smile that no camera would capture well.

“Thank you,” she said.

I ran my hand through my hair and sighed.

Haah… stupid, stupid Ethan. What were you thinking? The Mundus incident had shaken me up more than I thought.

Eight years ago, I was helped by people without any reason, without any conditions.

So what if I had my goals? So what if I wanted the world to change in some way? Did that mean I would use everyone for my goal?

No.

What was the point of something like that? I was helped eight years ago without reason, and I planned to help whoever I could without reason.

That was the only way I could keep their spirit alive. I never needed to think this much.

“That’s rude of you, professor.” Iaso glared at me. She had just thanked me and I started laughing. That was very rude. But, the next moment, her expression mellowed down. “You’re planning to go help her?”

I couldn’t solve things for someone else, but I could lend them a hand.

“I am.”

Iaso sighed. “You can’t keep your nose to yourself, can you? You’ll get in trouble like this one day.”

I was already making an enemy of the entire world, what more trouble could come my way?

“If that happens, it’ll be my turn to ask you for help, alright?”

“Sure!” she said. “Want a cookie?”

“I’ll take one.”