9 - Sophomore Year, Spring 2

Sergius stood around impatiently, wondering if Elizabeth wouldn’t come at the agreed-upon time.

Suddenly, many, many footsteps. Sergius disappears from view, prepares to dispatch the overwhelming numbers coming towards him. He stops as he sees who they are, sighs in relief as breaks the spell and appears before them.

This must be Elizabeth’s golem army, right?

The leader hands Sergius a letter, the handwriting is Elizabeth’s.

“ I will lend you 250 golems. Thank you very much for your service. I’m currently at the secret hot spring at the summit, so if something happens, please contact me through the golems. If I see you up here, I will kill you on sight.”

“Fuck me, this woman is crazy,” Sergius grumbles as he angrily tears up the letter. However, they could still be pieced together with enough time and effort, so he handed it back to the golem.

It spits fire and burns it to ashes. It seems they’re quite well-crafted.

The magical cult they’re investigating is ostensibly a legitimate magical research organization, but in reality, kidnaps orphans and conducts inhumane experiments.

Crushing them benefits this country as much as Sergius’ own. They only wish for peace but after rumors that their neighbors are preparing to declare war on them, he was sent under the cover of an international student to organize a coup and prevent such a conflict.

And since the cult also seems to be developing weapons for war, his home country would have a better chance of victory and would help Elizabeth’s goal of reducing the collateral damage if worst came to worst.

The golems break through the front doors of their headquarters, Sergius observes from the sidelines.

The members of the cult were no weaklings. Many of them were second or third sons of noble families, talented graduates of the Magic School but relegated to mere magicians for their Houses. Some of them were even the more powerful spellcasters in the country.

None of this matters.

Elizabeth’s golems were crafted at the conceptual level, similar to the strength of the legendary “Thousand Knights.” And even if the cult members were strong enough to take on one, they were outnumbered by two. They were so strong the Japanese people might call them “TUEEE”—that is, overpowered.

Eventually, every last member had been subdued or killed in two hours; having witnessed the destruction, Sergius decided he would never become Elizabeth’s enemy.

As he went back down the mountain, he saw Elizabeth doing the same but with Serena by her side.

“Eli, your skin is so soft!” Serena said, shamelessly caressing Elizabeth.

“Stop already, Serena,” Elizabeth said. “You’ve touched me enough.”

“Nope, I don’t think I have!” Serena counters.

Rage filled Sergius as he realized he had desperately been crushing a magical cult while Elizabeth was having lovey-dovey couple’s time, as usual. Then, he realized he couldn’t have done it without her golems and calmed down.

Elizabeth passed him by. “Thank you for your hard work,” she said.

Now, Sergius just felt exhausted.