——The day of the entrance ceremony at Neutral Academic City Babel.
Given that the mansion possessed a will of its own and could alter its structure at will, Daedalus readily agreed to my request. As a result, our residence became a thoroughly ordinary three-story building.
Of course, I had instructed Daedalus to make the interior security airtight, even if she had to go a bit overboard. It was undoubtedly on an entirely different level now.
The interior layout had also been expanded by warping space, but Rose and Anna, who were currently living there, did not seem to have noticed. At most, they endlessly repeated their amazement over the private bathtubs that filled with hot water at the press of a single button and the flush toilets installed in each room.
Rose seemed to believe I had simply ordered Daedalus to rebuild the estate from scratch. Since I saw no particular need to explain, I kept the truth about the house to myself. Besides, telling her would surely cause a huge uproar anyway.
Right now, we were having breakfast in the dining room.
"Kai, you have had a tendency to stand out in a bad way lately. For today's entrance ceremony, please make sure you act within the bounds of common sense."
Rose made this plea, having repeated the exact same sentiment several times already.
"Naturally, I intend to."
It was not as though I went out of my way to attract attention for fun. Above all, there was nothing to gain from it. Still...
"Though I'd say Master and the princess are already the center of attention, considering you've swapped out Babel's number one and number two," the beast Zack muttered ominously with a vacant expression while stuffing his cheeks with meat.
"T-The one who swapped them out wasn't me, it was Kai!"
Flustered, Rose frantically waved both hands back and forth, shoving all the blame onto me. It was true that Babel's number two, Crab Einstein, had been given a one-way ticket out of the real world, but as for the former headmaster Inea Renren Lorelei, she had merely resigned from her post of her own accord. I had never pressured her to quit.
"To begin with, demanding that Master avoid standing out is asking for the impossible."
While reading a book with his left hand, Asta skillfully brought food to his mouth with his right as he uttered such an utterly scandalous joke.
"Asta, is expecting common sense from Kai truly a lost cause after all?"
To Rose's clinging question, Asta answered firmly.
"It is only natural. Look no further than this utterly absurd house. Master is walking nonsense. Demanding common sense from such a master is like telling a fish to swim on land."
Hey! Asta, as always, that metaphor makes absolutely no sense. And on top of that, it gives me nothing but a terrible premonition.
"Big Sis Asta, don't! You can't! You shouldn't say stuff like that!"
Zack raised a frantic voice of protest, which was rare for him. To think that I would receive covering fire from you, Zack. Good going, Zack. Tell him more!
"When Master gets involved, even fish might actually start sprinting across the land."
Zack matter-of-factly poured fresh fuel onto the fire of Asta's nonsense.
"Come to think of it, we just encountered a bipedal fish the other day, didn't we?"
Rose held her head in both hands and let out a low groan.
"Yeah, that fish was hauling ass across the dirt..."
Gazing into the distance while sipping his tea, Zack offered his heartfelt reflection.
Come to think of it, there really was such a bizarre monster during Gil's trial. Wait, that was a monster, wasn't it? If it was a monster, there was nothing strange about a fish running on land. It was definitely not my fault!
The odds were completely against me on this matter. I decided to change the subject.
"By the way, what does today's schedule look like?"
"First, we will attend the general entrance ceremony inside the Tower of Babel, and then, two hours later, there will be an individual entrance ceremony at Ouboro Academy."
There were two entrance ceremonies in Babel. One was the general entrance ceremony hosted by Babel itself. The other was the individual ceremony held by each academy. In principle, every student was required to attend both.
"Understood. In that case, keep an eye on Faf for me."
I had already received permission from Ouboro Academy's headmaster for children like Faf and Fen to enter and leave the grounds. On the other hand, in exchange for that arrangement, I had promised that only academy-affiliated personnel would attend the events held for Babel as a whole.
"Faf wants to go too..."
As she sucked her thumb and looked up at me discontentedly, I stroked her head.
"Sorry, Faf. I'll buy your favorite chicken skewers on the way back."
I offered the exact words she wanted to hear.
"Really, is that true!?"
"Yeah, I promise."
"It's chicken~♬ Yakitori, it is~♪"
Giving a wry smile as Faf hummed an unrecognizable tune in sheer delight, I rose from my seat to get ready for the entrance ceremony.