The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

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Author Notes:

  Act III [Phantom Loyalty] starts here.

  The character introductions have been updated in the previous post.

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"Greetings, President."

"President! Good day!"

"Sister, good day to you."

"Yes. Good day to you all."

The Ladies' Academy in the royal capital of the Mataisa Kingdom.

As the name suggests, it's a girls' academy where young noblewomen gather.

It was a boarding school that could be attended by members of titled families between the ages of 6 and 15.

As a men-free flower garden, it's like an impregnable fortress designed to protect noble daughters from all situations.

Lilith Muuteru also started attending here when she was 9 years old.

As a daughter of a high-ranking ducal family, and because she could use not only theoretical and magical arts but also the rare mystical arts, she was respected from the moment she entered and quickly became the center of attention at the school.

Though she had imagined an ordinary academy life, it turned out to be much more turbulent than she had heard.

And last year, Lilith was promoted to student council president after winning a debate competition.

That's why she was called "President" by the students.

The first winter since becoming student council president had passed, and the season turned to spring.

Lilith had finally celebrated her 13th birthday.

Though that didn't mean much in itself, her birthday always fell on the day when the long break ended and the academy started a new school year.

Originally in this Mataisa Kingdom, there wasn't a custom of celebrating birthdays in a big way. Only the birthday when one comes of age is special and celebrated grandly in every household, but ordinary birthdays were modest affairs even for a duke's daughter.

Even though she had become the student council president, not much had changed. She had already been in the student council, so her workload just increased a bit. If anything had changed, it was that she now had a fiancé.

Her partner was the second son of some ducal family, a year older than her and attending a magic academy. He was an elite magician with a guaranteed position in the "Central Magic Association" after graduation.

A partner with impeccable status and ability. Her friends always said they envied her, and praised her saying "As expected of President Lilith" for having such a fiancé.

But Lilith was depressed.

Not being able to choose one's marriage partner was natural for a noble. She didn't intend to complain about that at this point.

It's just that even if she was praised or envied for her partner being amazing, it wasn't due to Lilith's own ability. The man being incredible was his own achievement, and the marriage arrangement was the effort of both families' parents. In either case, being praised for it didn't make Lilith happy.

"...Compared to my brothers, I'm still..."

Her eldest brother Lalahaine, the next head of the family, was the vice-captain of the kingdom's top-class First Knight Division.

Her second brother Lorozea was also a member of an elite strike force.

Gavin, who was close to her in age, had become a knight just a few years ago and was already selected for the princess's personal guard unit.

All her brothers were active as knights.

And above all, Ruruk, the "shame of the ducal family" whom Lilith admired the most, had become an S-rank adventurer before turning 14. Although the public didn't know he was a noble - Lilith's brother - she had been closely following his footsteps.

In the drawer of her desk were all the letters sent by Ruruk.

"Brother Ruru..."

Lilith opened a box in the drawer and took out the most recent letter, hugging it tightly to her chest.

It was just a letter from a brother to his sister, filled with trivial things like "How are you doing?", "Are you eating well?", "It's gotten livelier here with new companions."

There were no noble constraints, unnecessary etiquette, or pretenses in it.

It was a truly pure letter.

It had been five and a half years since Lilith came to the royal capital.

During that time, he had been continuously sending letters to their home.

To avoid revealing his connection to the ducal family, Ruruk didn't write his name or whereabouts. Because of this, Lilith couldn't reply, but she could feel Ruruk's proof of life, his warmth, from the letters. The letters were Lilith's treasure.

Come to think of it, there had been many hardships since coming to the royal capital. She had cried herself to sleep countless times.

But each time, she remembered Ruruk and pulled herself together.

She remembered her promise to become a fine lady recognized by everyone.

"--President, it's almost time."

"Yes, I'll be right out."

There was a knock at the door. Lilith switched gears and carefully put the letter back in the box.

Instead, she took out a mask.

It was a mask that covered her eyes.

Lilith put on the mask and left the room.

In the hallway were multiple girls, also wearing masks, bowing deeply.

They were all residents of this student dormitory - in other words, daughters of nobles, and members of the student council who had rooms on the top floor of this dormitory.

From behind them, who were posing uniformly as if swearing allegiance, one girl walked up brusquely.

"General Manager, you're as cute as ever today. I could just eat you up."

"Your flippancy is excessive, Gin. Are you really a member of the Ladies' Academy? Your words and actions always reflect yourself. Please don't let your guard down as a guild member either."

"Yes, yes. I get it."

"And as I always say, I don't recall calling myself the General Manager. Please call me President."

"I got it, Guild President."

It's doubtful whether she really understands, but she's always like this.

She's the vice president of the student council and the head of sales strategy for Lilith's guild.

She's the key player who grew the small guild Lilith started two years ago to its current size with her out-of-the-box ideas that aren't bound by this world's common sense.

Of course, she has a different real name, but like Lilith, she goes by an alias in the guild.

Her code name is Gin.

"So what's the meeting about today? Is it about your brother?"

"Of course. Today, we've developed a new magical device that might be useful to my brother, so I thought we'd get everyone's opinions on the adjustments."

"I see. I wonder what kind of surprising function will pop up this time~"

"That's for you to see and enjoy."

Lilith smiled as she activated the key-shaped magical device hanging from her neck.

In that instant, the dormitory hallway connected to a different space.

At the end of the hallway was a large conference room that shouldn't exist.

There, unique companions were seated around a round table, waiting for Lilith and the others.

Lilith Muuteru.

Her code name in the guild is Monon.

"Good day, everyone."

"Good day to you."

After greeting and taking the seat at the head of the table, Lilith looked around at her companions' faces before uttering her usual catchphrase.

The motto of this guild and the watchword dedicated to him whom Lilith worships.

"Now, let's begin. Everything for the sake of Brother Ruru."

"Everything for the sake of Master Luney."

The guild she had created called itself the Luney Guild.