The Young Lady Has Disappeared

"Impressive! As expected of Her Imperial Highness."

"Who are you?"

Chloe, who was about to bite her lip but realized that people's gazes were focused on her, quickly composed her expression. Biting her lip when tense or when things weren't going as planned was one of her bad habits. She had the illusion that the man in the monkey mask who walked out from the crowd was smiling.

No, he might have actually smiled.

Whatever the case, with that applause just now, the atmosphere had instantly shifted to their side. The imperial princess's persuasion had become a stopgap measure, and the gathered crowd was likely to move according to the will of the man in the monkey mask.

Chloe unknowingly looked up, but there was no one to be seen there.

That's natural. There's no way that mysterious maid named Catherine would reveal herself so easily. From the start, her combat ability was nothing short of a last resort for Chloe.

If she were to use force to resolve this damned disturbance, Chloe's reputation would ultimately fall.

But if she doesn't resolve it, she'll also lose her voice in the student council. She absolutely couldn't lose her voice in the student council, even if it meant scratching her reputation a bit.

Aptem Academy was no different from a small continent, and if she couldn't grasp power in such a place, her imperial father would never look her way.

Damn it, Chloe muttered inwardly as she glared at the man in the monkey mask. Then the man in the monkey mask slowly walked forward.

"I cannot give my dirty name to the noble Imperial Princess, so please just call me 'Monkey', the name of a beast. To royal blood, commoners are no more than beasts, aren't they?"

A subtly sarcastic remark using the gap in social status.

Chloe couldn't refute this statement at all. Acknowledging it would be absurd, but denying it would invite attacks from arrogant nobles. Given the current social atmosphere, Chloe had no choice but to remain silent.

"Heheh, silence is it? Well, that's fine. But Your Highness. Doesn't it seem not so good that you're trying to ignore the students' opinions right now?"

"I'm not trying to ignore them. I'm merely trying to persuade you with reasons."

"Persuasion, is it? I wonder if our students felt it as persuasion too? Didn't they perhaps feel it as intimidation by Your Imperial Highness's power?"

Is that so? No, it seems right. Hey, even so, isn't that going too far?

Such murmurs could be heard from the students. Just as I was thinking that it hadn't fallen that far yet, shouts were heard from inside.

"That's right!"

"This is intimidation by power!"

"Persuade us as student to student! This is cowardly!"

"What...?!"

Shouts coming from places where faces couldn't even be seen properly. Then the crowd's opinion started to converge. The once gentle crowd once again put on the mask of wolves and formed a ferocious group. Before she knew it, Chloe was biting her lip.

"Students! Let's push through our opinions to the high nobles and the student council!"

Damn it, should I call her? While Chloe was deep in thought, it happened suddenly.

Thwack-!

With a sound like a leather drum being hit, the man wearing the monkey mask flew off and crashed. He wasn't moving at all, as if he had fainted.

The crowd that had been about to surge forward instantly froze, and there stood a woman in baggy nightwear with her slender leg raised. While people's gazes were drawn to the perfect figure visible even under the baggy nightwear, the woman quietly muttered.

"Oh my, a mistake."

"..."

* * *

No, it really was a mistake. I quietly turned my head away from the gazes converging on me.

Perhaps because it had been a while since I last infiltrated, the problem was that I had misjudged where to place my foot. And to make matters worse, the place I fell happened to be where that man in the monkey mask was, which was an even bigger problem.

Doesn't this look like it was ordered by Her Imperial Highness? I thought this as I quietly looked at the students.

Their gazes were already filled with hostility. How dare you subdue our leader with violence? That's the kind of gaze it was. It's scary, really scary.

Of course, I could subdue a truckload of untrained ordinary people. But most of them were nobles. They might be children of lower nobles, but they were still nobles. If they got hurt unnecessarily, it would be troublesome afterwards.

Of course, the young lady would protect me, but troublesome is still troublesome. The best would be to subdue them with minimal injuries.

I can't use daggers. I removed the daggers tucked into the outside of my thighs and handed them to the imperial princess.

"Use these if necessary."

"If I take the weapons, then you..."

"I can't brandish weapons against untrained civilians, can I?"

I said this with an expressionless face, so perhaps she mistook it for a serious situation, the imperial princess tapped my shoulder.

"As long as you don't kill, I'll protect you."

"Well, that's..."

Thank you, I said, and at the same time I rushed into the crowd. It was to find the person inciting the crowd that had finished assessing the situation.

"Ch-Charge! The enemy is just one person!"

"Let's push through our will!"

"Don't forget the sacrificed Monkey!"

These guys might think they're doing some righteous movement, but they're not. It's just tantrum throwing by people who got miserably bad grades. That's the whole story of what they're doing.

To begin with, not all those who got bad grades are doing this. It's just those who want to reap results without effort coming out and doing this.

There might be those swept up in mob psychology like, "If that guy is doing it, I should too," but they weren't very admirable people either. I clenched my fist and first knocked out the one who had been shouting loudly from earlier.

"Guh?"

"H-Here! Here's the dirty dog of the imperial princess!"

"Who are you calling Her Imperial Highness's dog? I have a different master, you know."

Pouting my lips, I started knocking out the students throwing themselves at me one by one. When the head maid taught me how to handle one against many, I didn't understand why I had to learn such a thing, but... Sob, thank you Suzan...

Thwack, with a sound like hitting a leather drum, another student collapses with an "Ugh" sound.

To be honest, this body moves too comfortably. I could say it shows exactly the movements I imagine. Even in a world without magic, it sometimes showed movements that transcended humans.

To begin with, there weren't even a hundred people, so well. It was also a group that would naturally disintegrate if I just knocked out a few ringleaders, so I quickly knocked out those who were inciting first.

Then the group's momentum started to wane.

"Ugh..."

"What do you plan to do now? Fortunately, our Imperial Princess is a merciful person. If you repent even now, it might end with just a light punishment, but?"

"I-If it's a light punishment..."

"Hmm... I think it might be just cleaning the classroom at most?"

"What? I've never even cleaned my own room!"

"Is that something to brag about?"

These nobles, really. Although there were occasional commoners mixed in, as long as the majority of the group was nobles, classroom cleaning seemed to be considered quite a heavy punishment.

Feeling annoyed, I put the imperial princess, who had been blankly watching me from behind, in front of me.

"Uh, yes?"

"Your Imperial Highness. Would you please pass judgment?"

Please give it to them bang, bang, Your Highness. I want a concise and heavy punishment.

"Well, if you surrender now, I'll consider it as confinement."

"I-Is that true?"

"I promise on the honor of the imperial family."

At the unexpectedly heavy oath, the students' faces brightened up.

All those who could incite had been knocked out by my hand, and the man in the monkey mask had also fainted, so the students were no different from duckweed floating on water.  As one person started to surrender, all the students surrendered in an instant.

"One problem solved."

"Then for the rest, that monkey mask... Oh?"

"What's the matter?"

As I approached the direction where I had sent flying the man in the monkey mask to check on him, the man in the monkey mask had already disappeared. He was there just a moment ago? It was enough to make ghosts wail.

The imperial princess's expression also wavered slightly, perhaps surprised. But soon composing her expression, the imperial princess whispered to me quietly.

"Any suspicious persons?"

"I didn't see any."

"Is there no possibility of someone stronger than you in this academy?"

"...To begin with, since I haven't received professional training, there are superior assassins everywhere compared to me?"

"..."

The imperial princess looks at me with a face that says, "What a joke." No. Is that a look of seeing a strange person? It's embarrassing when you look at me like that.

I slightly twisted my head with an expressionless face.

"Well, it can't be helped. If we focus too much on what we've lost, we might lose what we're holding. For now, let's focus on resolving the situation. You... go back to Lady Lillian now."

"Yes."

"What?!"

No sooner had those words fallen than I threw off my nightwear. The imperial princess looked at me, startled by my sudden action. But there was a maid uniform inside. At times like this, I want to smile a bit, but my dead facial muscles still weren't working.

"There was a maid uniform inside."

"...Aren't you embarrassed by people's gazes?"

"It's not underwear, so I'm not embarrassed."

"...What nonsense is that again?"

Hmm, was this not the right line to say here? Even the outwardly cold, cruel, and perfect maid makes mistakes sometimes. Feeling suddenly embarrassed, I left quickly without giving any answer.

"...Haah."

I could hear the sound of the imperial princess's deep sigh from behind me, but I guess it's okay since she didn't try to stop me. Thinking this, I hurried my steps.