“James?!” shouted Nicole, jumping from her chair as she pointed a finger at the man that walked in. “What are you doing here?!”

James looked just as surprised as Nicole as he looked with raised eyebrows at her, but after a moment, he turned a questioning frown at the Duchess sitting close to us. “What is this? I thought you had to have an appointment to meet with you.”

“Yes, that’s the case, but this is different,” the Duchess said, gesturing with her hand to me. “She is the Hero of the Holy Gods, after all.”

“What?” James replied with the same questioning frown on his face. “No, they’re just a couple of idiots that come from the same place as me. Nothing more.”

The Duchess simply chuckled and shook her head. “That’s what the world has been led to believe, but over here, things are different—Or did you perhaps really believe that someone like Asteora would be 'hanging around' in your country with a couple of random women for something so simple as just to train one girl?”

James’ frown showed that he was not really believing what the Duchess was saying, and as more time passed, said frown turned into a narrowed-eyed look at me. “But she doesn’t do Holy Magic—at least, not actively. She uses Darkness and Hellfire most of the time, and I thought that to be the Hero of the Holy Gods, you had to have their Holy powers.”

“They were lost at the end of the Final War when the Gods took that away from me,” I said with a shake of my head.

“And people simply believe that?” he asked back with a scoff.

“You may not, but the people from our world know her face very well—and we’ve already confirmed that she’s not just a look-alike,” the Duchess followed up.

“Okay… then let's say that I believe that…” James said, “Does this change my reason for being here?”

With a shake of her head and a tap on the side of the table, the Duchess beckoned James. The young man obediently walked over and took a seat on the table next to her, before she continued. “This is better than before. She’s willing to work with us in my mission to integrate the Empire into this world.”

“Then… Is she going to undertake Holy Knight training with me… or…?” James asked.

The Duchess laughed. “There’s no way that someone like her is going to need to do such a thing. She used to be the Holiest Knight, after all, so there’s no point in doing that—no, she’s just going to do what the Emperor’s requesting, and I’m going to aid her.”

“And…?” James pressed.

“Since you already know each other, I think it would be a good idea to work together,” the Duchess said with a nod.

James’ frown deepened when he heard that, causing him to turn said frown this way and look between me, and the glaring Nicole sitting next to me. “You do know that they’re kinda dumb, right?”

“Huh?!” Nicole exclaimed. “I’ll have you know that I’ve been working on the classes that you need to get an engineering degree, so I’m not dumb at all!”

James scoffed in response as he looked down on her. “Being able to do homework and memorize shit doesn’t make you smart, just hard working.”

“Yeah? Well, that’s more than it can be said about you,” she said, leaning over the table with a glare that I feared might turn into a fire beam.

“Hmph, if we’re going to compare those sorts of things, I myself earned the exchange program’s first place for Leyfall, beating everyone in both magic proficiency and knowledge score, something that you didn’t do, since you just happened to be born with special magic that allowed you to be picked up by the greatest mage we know,” James replied as he crossed his arms.

“I still work hard on what I have to do, and I—I could’ve done the same thing if I wanted!” she refuted.

With a smirk, James looked back at Nicoles’ glare. “But you didn’t.”

Nicole grunted, clenched her fists and looked back at James’ smirk with a glare. I could even feel some heat coming from her body. “How about we go out there and settle this once and for all! We can put to the test your stupid Holy Magic, and I’ll show you what happens when you—”

“Okay, that’s enough, you two,” I said, tapping Nicole on the arm and creating a bit of ice magic on her, causing her to yelp as she turned surprised to look at me. “We shouldn’t be fighting right now. There’s better things to be done.”

The Duchess quickly followed up with a nod. “I agree. We didn’t accept you into this exchange plan because we wanted to fight with allies and potential allies. Please try to keep a good relationship with them, James.”

James uncrossed his arms, and relaxed his expression. “Right. I’ll try my best.”

“That’s good. As for why you’re here. I was hoping to get to know how you were doing with the Holy Knight’s training,” The Duchess asked as she turned a curious glance at James.

“It’s going fine. Holy Magic requires a bit more focus and mana to properly control and empower, but so far, it’s nothing that I can’t handle,” James replied without looking at the Duchess as the servant girl walked over with a bright smile and placed a cup of tea in front of the young man. “Though, I’m itching to put it to the test. The Magic Red Zone near home isn’t that much difficult anymore.”

“Is that so…?” the Duchess said, giving the man a thoughtful look. “Then, there might be something else for you to do.”

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He took the drink and sipped it without looking back at the Duchess. “What is it?”

“You will help Althea in her mission,” she said and took her own drink.

James turned to look at me. He didn’t appear to be bothered by what she said, but neither did he look like he liked the idea. “And… what would that be?”

“Ending the Followers of Leyfall,” I plainly replied.

There was a look of surprise in his face, but it quickly changed to a smirk. “Now that’s something interesting. Sure, I’ll join you for that.”

“Eh…? But can we trust you…?” Nicole asked with her eyes narrowed as she looked at him.

“What do you mean by that? I should be the one asking that,” he said, matching Nicole’s expression.

“I feel like you might just let us die for fun or something like that,” Nicole followed up.

James laughed out loud and shook his head. “Sheesh, you have a pretty negative view of me.”

“Your personality doesn’t really help,” Nicole replied with a shrug. “But whatever, I’m going to trust you… so… don’t make me regret it.”

“Again, I should be the one saying that,” he then leaned on the table with a taunting smile on his face. “Aren’t you far weaker than everyone else here?”

Nicole widely smiled with a similar smirk as James’, causing him to raise one eyebrow. Nicole brought up her watch and pointed it at him. This time he raised both eyebrows.

“I’m already in the A ranks. I’m pretty qualified to do almost anything!” she exclaimed, taking back her wrist and placing a hand on her hip.

“Damn… when did that happen?” James asked back, his face of surprise.

“Not too long ago. So…” Nicole said with a smirk, “You better keep up!”

The look of James’ face turned to a similar smirk. “Well, this will be much more interesting it seems!”

There was a moment where they both looked at each other with the same smirk as if they wanted to force the other to yield, but neither of them looked away, nor it seemed like they were intimidated by each other, so with a sigh and a shake of my head, I called their attention back to me.

“It’s not a competition, and things will get dangerous, so do try to take this seriously, and most of all, make sure that you keep each other safe,” I said, giving a look to Nicole first and then to James.

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t get all the things and power that I have by slacking on the things that I have to do. You’ll get that mission of yours done even before this fire chicken gets to light a candle,” James said with his eyes closed and his arms crossed while nodding his head.

“Hey!” Nicole exclaimed.

“I hope so,” Duchess Flameheart said, “There’s a lot of resources that were placed in the exchange students, and I hope that they can be put to good use.”

“They will,” James said, opening his eyes and looking seriously at the Duchess. “Those guys that took the things from here to go do whatever they want won’t get away from it… same as the assholes that killed Steven. Once this is over, and we go back, we have to make sure that the people that did that get what they deserve.”

With a frown, I looked at him. “You can’t just go over the law to—”

“I know, I know,” he interrupted, “But sometimes… you’ll just have to push it a little.”

I looked at him, but his eyes were back on the drink on the table. I knew that he was aware of the look I was giving him, but was just ignoring it. Hopefully, he won’t go back to do something rash, but… I also knew that he was someone that really liked things to be done in the right way, so I wasn’t too worried about him going out of his way to do something that he shouldn’t.

“Well then,” Duchess Flameheart said, standing from the table. “I believe that we all have things to do on our own, so I won’t be keeping you anymore.”

“Wait,” James said, quickly turning his head to look at her, “I thought that there was something else to discuss with me.”

Flameheart shook her head. “No. At first I wanted to check on your progress and see if there was something else that could be done, but with Althea’s cooperation, there’s something else to do.” She turned to look at me and Nicole. “If you wish to talk things through here for a while, then do so. I won’t interrupt you. There’s other things I must attend to with my computer.”

I stood up from the table with Nicole following soon after. “That’s okay. I don’t want to intrude in your home any more than I should. Besides…” I trailed off, thinking about the man I should go see next. “There’s someone else I should go talk to before the end of the day.”

“Very well. Then, farewell, Radiance Althea,” she replied, giving a small curtsy, before turning around and leaving to go up some stairs that were to the side of the room.

Nicole looked at James, who was calmly drinking the soda while snacking on some potato chips that the servant girl gleefully brought for him. “Are you… not going to leave as well?”

“It’s fine. I’ll stay here and be pampered for a while,” he said with a wide smile directed at the servant girl, who just blushed slightly with a soft smile.

Nicole narrowed her eyes at both the servant girl and James. “Ugh… okay…”

“What? Sad that I’m not giving you any attention?” he said with a smirk.

“No, don’t worry about that. I don’t need it,” she said and swiftly moved past me to be at the door. “Come on, Althea, we have better things to do.”

With a nod, I followed after her, and with the same swift movements with which she went to the door, she opened it and left, quickly beckoning me to follow after her. I wasn’t feeling like rushing to get away from James like she was since I wasn’t too keen on meeting the next person, but the sooner I got that done, the better, so I quickly followed after her.

* * *

“Yeah! That wouldn’t be a problem!” Duke Garlford exclaimed with a wide smile as he stood by the door of his home.

The place he was living in was larger than Duchess Flameheart, and it was outside, overlooking the large garden of the Imperial Palace. I could see his son and his family behind him, with Joseph in particular carrying a stunned expression as he looked this way.

I didn’t waste time telling him what I wanted out of him, which was to use his resources to change the people’s perceptions of the Holy Gods, and just as fast I told him that, he agreed to it.

“W-wait!” Joseph exclaimed, quickly rushing over to the door. “Father, we can’t just give those things away without consideration! Our family’s resources were severely damaged after being transported to Earth, we cannot just—”

“Bah! You don’t get it!” Duke Garlford exclaimed, turning his face to look at the son. “Our family’s existence was to support the Emperor and whatever he needed, which is what I’m doing here.”

“Yes, but said support is supposed to be for the sake of the Holy Gods. We cannot just go out there and tell the people that—”

“I will not hear it!” the old man interrupted. “This is a request from the Hero of the Holy Gods herself, and I shall do my duty as I always have! Besides, even His Majesty agrees with this, so I’m doing what’s right.”

“Father…” Joseph started but trailed off as he returned a disappointed look at the old man.

While I felt somewhat bad for the man—being forced to accept this sort of thing—I was also not going to turn down the offer that this old Duke gave me, especially when it’ll make things much more easier for me.

“Well then… I’ll leave up to you,” I said, and with a small wave of my hand, I turned to leave.

“Huh? Wait, aren’t you at least going to accept some of me and my family’s—”

“Sorry, but I’m already late for another duty. Such is the life of the Hero of the Holy Gods,” I interrupted and quickly turned to leave.

“Well, if that’s the case…” I heard the Duke reply with disappointment in his voice.

As we were leaving, I could hear Joseph speak once more to the old Duke about what he just agreed to do, but I paid it no mind as I already got what I wanted. Everything else was up to him.

“Um… we don’t really have anything else to do though…” Nicole said, but like I did with the Duke, I didn't reply and just kept going.