Sunlight poured in through the window and onto the bed.
Naturally, that sunlight fell upon Rei's face as he slept, rousing him awake whether he liked it or not.
"Nnnh... nna?"
Rei woke with an inarticulate murmur but paused halfway as he pushed himself upright on the bed.
He sat there spacing out for a few minutes, then stretched broadly with a still-sleepy expression before getting out of bed and changing into his clothes.
It was still morning. Only a few hours had passed since the battle with Stigma ended and he finished explaining the situation to Erinde.
No—rather, it would be more accurate to say he had managed to get a few hours of sleep.
Normally, after fighting through such an intense battle, one's nerves would be too frayed to sleep. But Rei had fallen into a deep slumber as if none of that mattered to him.
"Let's see, this place is... ah, right."
He remembered that his original room had been rendered unusable by the Stigma attack, and that this was one of the overnight-duty rooms located not far from the headmaster's office.
"...So, what am I supposed to do now? Breakfast at the staff dormitory? Go say good morning to Erinde? Surely they're not expecting me to go to class like this."
Muttering to himself, he glanced out the window. It was clearly not yet time for classes.
It wasn't quite early morning, but it was a little earlier than when he usually woke up.
Since he had fallen asleep the moment he arrived in this room a few hours ago, he was still mulling over what to do next when a sudden knock came at the door.
For a split second, Rei thought it might be Stigma again, but he quickly dismissed the idea—enemies wouldn't bother knocking—and called out permission to enter.
"Excuse me, Lord Rei. I am Swin, a maid ordered by Lady Erinde to attend to you. It will only be for a short while, but I will do my utmost to ensure you want for nothing."
The maid bowed deeply toward Rei, then wheeled a cart bearing breakfast into the room.
She lifted the metal cover that had been keeping out dust and debris to reveal a simple breakfast of bread, soup, salad, and sausages.
Simple, yes—but by no means shabby.
Fresh raw vegetable salad, even in the middle of winter.
The bread and soup were likewise dishes prepared from carefully selected ingredients by a first-rate chef.
The aroma of the soup and the fragrant scent wafting from freshly baked bread stimulated his appetite like nothing else could.
"Please enjoy. This is the Academy Headmaster's personal stash of black tea."
What was offered to Rei, now seated at the table, was a black tea with a somewhat fruity fragrance.
Rei didn't particularly know good tea from bad, but if it was Erinde's personal stash, he couldn't help thinking it might cost as much as gold or silver.
"Is this okay? If it's your personal stash, you can't have that much of it, right?"
"Yes. Given all the trouble we've caused you with this incident, I'm told this is to curry your favor."
"...Is that okay?"
The same words Rei had spoken just seconds earlier left his mouth again, but the meaning behind them was entirely different.
The first "Is this okay?" was asking whether it was fine to splurge on the tea. The second was asking whether it was really acceptable to openly admit it was to curry his favor, even if true.
But the maid simply smiled and nodded.
"Yes, it's quite alright. I was specifically instructed to say exactly that if you asked."
"That's... remarkably blunt."
Even so, Rei was grateful to Erinde.
After all, Erinde had called in Sardat, an S-Rank Adventurer, to protect him. That was only natural.
...Though, honestly, Rei's opinion of Sardat as a bodyguard was somewhat questionable.
Since the King's Faction effectively retained the S-Rank Adventurer under their wing, it was undoubtedly cheaper in terms of compensation and various conditions than if another faction had hired Sardat.
Even so, being S-Rank meant he wasn't someone who could be hired easily.
(Though, in Sardat's case, he seems like the type who'd accept a request the moment he was asked. Especially if a woman asked him—he'd probably take on the request immediately. ...Not that it's absolutely certain, but.)
After Rei finished his breakfast neatly, the maid cleared it away right away.
Rei watched her, but just before she left the room, she gave a slight bow and spoke up.
"Lady Erinde left a message: once you've finished breakfast and settled down, she would like you to come to the headmaster's office."
"Erinde did? ...Got it. I'll head over shortly."
"Yes, then I shall relay that."
After seeing the maid off as she left the room with the cart, Rei sipped the last cup of tea she had poured for him and thought about what lay ahead.
Rei had originally come to Gracial to avoid getting caught up in unnecessary trouble over the King's Faction's disciplinary purge.
After all, many people believed Rei was the cause of this purge.
And even among those who understood he wasn't the cause, there was a very real possibility that some might try to take out their frustration on Rei out of petty spite.
If anyone actually did such a thing, the already-declining prestige of the King's Faction would plummet even further.
Beyond the major blunders—the disgrace shown during the war against the Bestia Empire the previous spring, and the failure to capitalize on the Bestia Empire's civil war—there was also the arrogance of the nobles that came with belonging to the King's Faction, the largest faction in the Kingdom of Mireana.
That was precisely why the disciplinary purge was happening. Rei had been invited to Gracial—the seat of Duke Quento's House, an important figure within the King's Faction—under the guise of a commission, specifically to keep him from getting entangled in the purge. Yet the result was the Holy Light Religion's rampage.
For Duke Quento and his faction, it could only be called a massive failure.
Fortunately for them, Rei did not view this failure as Duke Quento's fault.
If Rei had insisted that this was Duke Quento's responsibility, even the Duke, who wielded significant influence within the King's Faction, would not have been able to avoid a loss of standing.
Though from Rei's perspective, the Holy Light Religion's attack on him was the result of his dealings in Labyrinth City Exil. Calling it self-inflicted would be going a bit far, but it wasn't far from the truth.
"Well, one way or another, this situation will probably work itself out somehow too. ...It will, right? The Holy Light Religion aside."
Muttering that, he finished the last sip of his tea and stood up.
After quickly tidying his appearance, he left the room.
The distance from the room where Rei had stayed to the headmaster's office was not far.
He walked through the mostly deserted school building until a familiar door came into view.
"Erinde, it's Rei. Can I come in?"
He knocked and called out, and was immediately told to enter.
Stepping inside as usual, he found two scenes spread out before him—one expected, and one unexpected.
The expected scene: Erinde and Sardat were in the headmaster's office.
Both of them had likely been busy dealing with the aftermath of last night's incident. Exhaustion was written on their faces.
...Though given that such a major disturbance had occurred in the middle of the night at the Officer Academy, it was only natural that putting it to rest would be difficult.
Since Rei hadn't used any flashy magic, the commotion hadn't spread to the student dormitories. But concealing everything in the staff dormitory where Rei had been staying was impossible.
Naturally. Many former adventurers lived in the staff dormitory.
Among such people, he had shattered a window to escape outside, and spread flames across a wide area of ground—even if it was at some distance from the dormitory.
Not a few people had also noticed the Holy Domain that Visente had deployed.
Though most recognized it as some kind of unknown phenomenon, few could understand that it was caused by a power other than magic.
In any case, there had been an incident dense enough to fill an entire night. Concealing everything and calming the situation was nearly impossible, and Erinde and Sardat—specifically, mainly Erinde—had probably had to run themselves ragged to contain the fallout.
Rei thought that if they had spent the time they used questioning and lecturing him on actually resolving the situation, they might have had a bit more breathing room. But voicing that would likely earn him another lecture, so he kept it to himself.
And then, the unexpected scene.
It was the people seated on the visitor's sofa in the headmaster's office.
One was a girl who might or might not be ten years old. Rei knew exactly who she was.
Someone who would not normally be here this early in the morning—Maruka Quento.
Of the two men standing behind the sofa as her guards, one was Koan, a former A-Rank Adventurer and Maruka's attendant.
The other was the man who had come to greet Rei when he arrived in Gracial, and whom Rei hadn't met since because he had mostly stayed within the Officer Academy. Isukerudo, who also served as the Knight Commander of the knights under Duke Quento.
And the last person. Seated next to Maruka, looking in Rei's direction, was a man in his fifties.
He clearly trained his body, but it was equally clear that he was not a first-rate warrior.
Even so, simply by being in the same room, he radiated an overwhelming presence.
The reason Rei showed no sign of tension before such a man was undoubtedly because he had seen Daskar, who emitted a similar presence—though Daskar possessed genuine combat prowess as a knight—and above all, because he had seen Trajist, the Emperor of the Bestia Empire, with his own eyes.
Compared to Trajist's overwhelming presence, the pressure that the man on the sofa was unconsciously emitting could safely be called nothing remarkable.
Based on the aura Rei sensed from the middle-aged man... and above all, the fact that Maruka sat beside him and Isukerudo stood behind him as a guard, it was easy enough to understand who this person was.
(So this is the man...)
The King's Faction, a force that vastly overshadowed both the Noble's Faction and the Neutral Faction.
A major figure within the largest faction in the Kingdom of Mireana, and the man who was effectively carrying out the King's Faction's disciplinary purge.
Rei glanced at the man for only a moment before turning back to Erinde and speaking.
"Calling me out this early in the morning—it's about yesterday, isn't it?"
At Rei's words—he had lowered his hood, revealing his face—Erinde offered a wry smile.
Erinde and Sardat had been up since last night, working to contain the situation.
From Erinde's perspective, Rei, who had slept and woken up—early in the morning, no less—was simply enviable.
"Indeed. Things have been quite hectic on our end, but it seems Lord Rei managed to get at least some sleep."
Even after an all-nighter, Erinde was as androgynous as ever—neither distinctly masculine nor feminine.
Rei couldn't help but smile at those words.
"I'm still a little short on sleep, but I won't complain. ...So, the reason you called me here..."
He paused, glancing at the middle-aged man seated on the sofa, who was studying Rei intently as if sizing him up.
Rei understood immediately that this man had business with him and was the reason he had been called.
Even so, Rei addressed Erinde first rather than the man—partly because it was Erinde who had summoned him, but more importantly because the middle-aged man had not yet been introduced.
The fact that Rei had heard beforehand that this person was strict about etiquette probably played a large part as well.
If he had ignored Erinde, who had called him here, and spoken directly to that man, it would almost certainly have left a bad impression.
"Ah, of course, just as you suspected. ...Honestly, I thought it would be a little longer before I introduced you to Lord Rei. Lord Rei, this is the lord of Duke Quento's Territory—Duke Quento, Lord Ronald Quento."
At the sound of his name from Erinde's lips, Ronald finally rose from the sofa and approached Rei.
"You must be Lord Rei. As I've just been introduced, I am Ronald Quento. I've caused you a great deal of trouble. For that, I am truly sorry."
Saying that, he extended his hand toward Rei, seeking a handshake.