CH 25

Anne-san banged on the penthouse door knocker.

“Yee-s, you may come in, please make yourselves welcome.”

It was a really cute, puni-puni little maid girl who took care of us.

Wow, so this is the house of an Omawari-san.

When I learn this is Yuriyuri-senpai’s maid, it smells like a transcendental crime.

I hope she’s not keeping this little girl prisoner.

“Makoto, it’s okay, she’s a halfling maid,” Carol said.

I must have been looking at the little girl maid with such a strange face, so Carol explained.

Halflings are a legal loli/shota race who look like children even when they grow up.

I saw them for the first time.

“Oh no, oh no, I was just about to call the dorm knight-sans,” I said.

“Ahaha, they’ve already been called here before,” the maid said.

“No surprise about that,” I said.

We entered the drawing room led by the little girl maid who walked with a toddle.

Yuri-Yuri-senpai was there.

“Welcome, Makoto-sama, Caroline-sama, I am very happy to have you come to my residence,” Yurisha said.

“Likewise, thank you very much for considering joining my faction,” I said.

“Oh my, I should be thanking you as well, it’s a great turn of events for us as well,” Yurisha said.

“Is that so? I thought it was because you liked me,” I said.

“I do like you Makoto-sama, but if I act as duke’s daughter must, that reason alone is weak,” Yurisha said.

And at that, Yuri-Yuri-senpai smiled.

Certainly, if you join a faction as a duke, there’s no reason for you to act just because you like me.

Participating in a faction is a problem for the entire clan, and the head of the family, the Koushaku-sama, may also be affected by these decisions…

So why did the daughter of Duke Appleby want to join the Saint’s Faction?

“May I ask why?” I asked.

“The main reason is that the 2nd Duke of Pottinger, James Pottinger, passed away last year,” Yurisha said.

“???”

“This is going to be a little long, but would you like to hear the story of the rare hero, James Pottinger-koushaku?” Yurisha said.

I was wondering if that greasy old man’s dad was that amazing, but it was certainly the achievement of a hero.

When he was a student, James-kimi started his own faction from scratch, even though he was the son of an earl, and was very active in fighting, studying, sports, martial arts, and magic! It seems that he was just a badass, a masculine man’s man, and an attractive guy, too.

He’s an Oda Nobunaga or a Cao Cao, an ambitious character, like an owl-type hero.

Naturally, he was very popular with the young ladies, and he had a harem full of embracing and parting, embracing and parting, and in the end, he persuaded a princess to marry him and take her on as a first wife.

It seems that he was a hero who felt like a Harlequin protagonist who was forcibly advancing, or the hero of an otome game.

It seems that House Pottinger’s rise from earl to marquis, and from marquis to duke, is mostly thanks to James-okina.

If you achieve great results in wars with neighboring countries, marry a princess, kick out your rivals, add your allies to your family line, and expand your faction, you would keep going up in the world.

You know, a natural cheat character that seems to be loved by the heavens.

It’s the kind of character Otou-sama would have loved, but one year after his death, he still hasn’t become a part of history within the framework of politics.

The Pottinger Royal Line was born, and the current royal family was terrified, but it seems that one day the movement for James-okina to take over the throne stopped.

It is said that around that time, his dying wife admonished him against aiming for the throne, or he had realized that ascending to the throne at that age would give him too little time to rule.

After that, he took care of his granddaughter Vivian, and the Duke of Pottinger became a maternal relative, changing his policy toward swallowing up the royal family.

I wonder if the king decided it was impossible with the current Duke Pottinger’s greasy aura.

I wish I could have met you, James-okina, you must have been a cool old man.

“What do you think of Vivian-sama’s father and Vivian-sama herself?” I asked.

“I hear that Doland-sama, the current head of the house, is several steps below James-sama,” Yurisha said. “And Vivian-sama’s grades are not good, and neither is her magical skills.”

Vivian-sama is talented in martial arts and has the impressive fighting ability, but the aristocratic evaluation points are academic grades and magic.

“What about Vivian-sama’s political power?” I asked.

“Ohoho, just before the entrance ceremony, I can’t expect political power or charisma from those who try to force a saint candidate to drop out of school just because they are an eyesore,” Yurisha said. “If things had worked out, it would have been fine for her, but you, Makoto-sama, turned the tables on her.”

Ah, so the troublesome incident before entering school became Vivian-sama’s big mistake, and it became my big gold star.

“The attempted poisoning in the girls’ dormitory was also a bad move,” Yurisha said. “Why did she launch a lethal attack on the same day, and at that, if she was going for lethal, she should have aimed for instant death. There is also no excuse for not investigating if poison will work on saints beforehand.”

I see, political power is basically useless unless you win.

No, I guess it’s okay to fail, but I guess it’s part of my ability to lose well and do well on the back foot.

“By committing two poorly thought-out blunders in a row, the nobles of the Royal Faction who were afraid of House Pottinger began to move, thinking they may now be able to crush the frightening, terrifying Pottinger-kyou or worse, reduce their power as a whole. That’s why the Saint’s Faction was such a stroke of luck.”

“It’s a coincidence, or rather, it’s a defensive organization,” I said.

“Defensive, it really is the ideal faction motivation,” Yurisha said. “I can only say it’s a blessing in disguise.”

“Does that mean that since the Royal Faction will attack, the Saint’s Faction should take all the enemy attacks?”

“That’s not true, the Saint’s Faction took on the enemy’s plot and repelled it, and took advantage of that gap to form another faction, a coalition of the Royal Faction and the weaker nobles. However, they will attack while you’re shaking hands.”

Uwah, how nasty, are you going to siege and annihilate the Saint’s Faction as a decoy?

This is what a faction struggle is like, a battle without honor and ethics.

They’re moving with the intention of completely ruining the duke’s house.

James-okina must have been so scared of it.

“Perhaps there will be another attack of some kind,” Yurisha said. “If we can survive it, we’ll be fine for the year.”

“Really?”

One more thing.

“Right now, Pottinger-kyou’s undercover forces at the Academy are, so to speak, reserve soldiers, and if they make yet one more blunder, they will be punished,” Yurisha said. “Then we’ll be safe a year from now on, because then I’ll be leaving.”

“Oh, yes, Appleby-sama will be graduating,” I said.

“So, Makoto-sama, Caroline-sama, please raise your faction firmly within this year,” Yurisha said.

“I understand. Thank you very much,” I said.

A year from now, a secret military unit raised by the former James Pottinger-kyou will come, led by the hidden character, the Butler of Poison.

Does that mean that the power of our faction should be increased by then?

I see, it’s a behind-the-scenes story that can’t be understood in a conversation-based otome game.

When the protagonist becomes a sophomore, the number of Attack Events suddenly increases.

In the game, it was an impossible move for the Duke of Pottinger family to miraculously self-destruct if the characters were in love.

No wonder, compared to other otome games, the bullying means of this villainess were nothing but violent: poisoning and assassination.

Also, I misunderstood Yuri-Yuri-senpai.

I thought she was more of a character with flowers growing in her head, but she has high analytical skills and is a very sharp person.

“Actually,” I said, “if you had moved the children of aristocrats, wouldn’t it be necessary for the entire House of Appleby to move?”

“Ufufufu, I’m honestly a little angry,” Yurisha said. “Vivian-sama is mocking the West Girls’ Dormitory by poisoning an event I and Estelle were supervising. And as Appleby doesn’t involve themselves much in politics, I will take it upon myself, and I wanted to tell her that because of these actions, she’d sold out the old aristocracy, too. Ohoho.”

It’s nice, it’s nice and quite conniving.

It’s fantastic.

Her serious gachi-yuri tendencies are a bit too much of a flaw, though.

I’m the leader of the Saint’s Faction, but House Appleby seems to be a big supporter.

I feel safe.