Gladia was not the only one watching the bloody struggle between the new students and the monsters.
In the upper floors of Stellar Academy's main building, behind a secret control room sealed off by thick magical barriers—
—sat the slaves who had sold their souls to the demon (professor) in exchange for power. Or rather, the teaching assistants.
They stared at the crystal orbs on their desks, scribbling and checking notes without pause.
The crystal orbs displayed a live feed of the grand hall, which had descended into chaos moments ago when the monsters came pouring in.
"My, my—for a staged event they run every year, this year's production is particularly vicious, isn't it? More than half the new students can't even keep themselves together."
One assistant spoke up, and the older one beside him snorted.
"This is exactly the right level. This year's cohort has an unusually high number of notable names. They're already calling this intake the Golden Generation inside the faculty. So shouldn't we filter them properly? And back in my day, you know—"
"Yes, yes, I know—you were suddenly dropped on a deserted island and had to survive for a week. How many times have you told that story now?"
The two kept chatting, but their hands never stopped moving, recording diligently all the while.
Bodies long broken in by the demon (professor)'s hand were nothing if not honest.
Moving automatically without conscious thought, completing their assigned tasks as naturally as breathing—
That was the price paid for selling one's soul to the demon (professor).
"Still, this cohort really is something else. Look at that."
"What is it—oh my. At that age, already at that level? Impressive."
The crystal orbs held the assistants' gaze, and what they showed seemed to justify the Golden Generation label entirely: geniuses carving through monsters at a terrifying pace.
A hulking man swinging a massive shield like a bludgeon, shattering monsters in single blows. A man and woman in Eastern-style clothing—conspicuously out of place among the Western uniforms—drawing ghostly arcs with their blades. A woman draped in beast hide tearing monsters apart with her bare hands. A girl commanding a swarm of spirits.
The assistants' quill pens moved without rest.
"Back in my day, I think my first instinct when monsters showed up was to run…"
"Well, they don't carry the bloodlines of the three great ducal houses and the Margrave House for nothing. And it looks like the Kingdom of Sing and Cradle both sent their best picks as well."
Yet even among those remarkable prodigies, the undisputed center of the battlefield was Edward, Crown Prince of the Libertian Empire.
Rumble, boom—!
He held a dense cluster of enormous magic circles aloft in one hand, raining down relentless bolts of lightning.
Rallying the scattered new students and snapping them into formation in an instant—it was a performance that more than justified the weight of his title.
"Even so, his personality is his one flaw. His ability, though—that's beyond question."
"Watch your mouth. You'd need more than one head to spare, saying things like that."
The younger assistant shrugged at the senior's rebuke and moved his quill.
Grumbling aside, the Crown Prince's performance was clearing the assistants' exacting scoring rubric with effortless ease.
Then, in that same moment—behind the Crown Prince in the crystal orb's view, at the safest center of the makeshift shelter the students had thrown together—a blinding, sacred light erupted in all directions.
Within that flood of radiance stood a single girl.
"Is that the one they say appeared after a thousand years—"
"Yes. The Saintess. She doesn't look like she's even come of age yet, but that divine power is overwhelming."
On the screen, the Saintess's brilliantly glowing pink hair swept through the air. Her nun's habit was pulled taut to the point of tearing over a conspicuously full figure even through the feed, radiating a kind of sacrilegious beauty.
And yet, even seeing that, the assistants found themselves incapable of any improper thought.
What they felt was overwhelming sanctity.
Power befitting the goddess's own chosen representative.
The assistants kept recording without pause, manipulating the crystal orbs to survey the battlefield from every angle.
"Good… this section looks covered. How's that side?"
"Looks about done here too."
"What about the Drnaris girl? She's off on her own."
"Ah, that one's…"
The younger assistant trailed off and glanced down at the crystal orb showing Aiolette.
"…A monster."
The scene in the orb was nothing short of shocking.
The entire hall was a living hell smeared with blood and screaming—yet the space immediately surrounding her, tucked into one corner of the grand hall, maintained an uncanny, eerie quiet.
Aiolette Drnaris.
She held exactly the same posture she'd had before the monster assault began.
Not a single step taken. Sunk deep into her chair, watching the carnage with imperious, detached eyes.
If anything, she looked mildly annoyed by the inconvenience of it all—brow faintly furrowed, arms crossed, legs crossed—as though the entire uproar were nothing more than a brief disturbance beneath her notice.
But beneath that composure, what unfolded at her feet was chillingly brutal.
Sssss—
The shadow stretching long behind Aiolette writhed and moved like a living thing.
Monsters that charged at her without knowing better found their maws clamped shut before they could even scream, seized whole by the shadow and dragged down into the abyss beneath the floor.
Crack. Crunch—
The muffled sounds of bones splintering and flesh being crushed rippled quietly through the air. The shadow, having consumed the monsters without a trace, slipped back beneath Aiolette's feet as if nothing had happened at all.
"…She's already terrifying."
"Really…"
"Well, I think we've confirmed what we needed to. Let's wrap up."
"Yes, sir. Oh—what do we do about Titan?"
"That one was just placed there for intimidation anyway. It'll dismiss itself once the time's up. Still, check it one more time in case it starts acting up before then."
"Yes, sir!"
The younger assistant reached for the crystal orb showing Titan, the enormous monster dominating the center of the main screen.
The academy's giant summoned creature, deployed purely to instill visual terror in the new students.
He was about to confirm there were no anomalies and move on—when his fingers froze.
"…Huh?"
There, on the screen filled by Titan's massive face—right beside it, on the creature's shoulder.
A woman in a maid's uniform was sitting there with her legs dangling, perfectly at ease, as though she'd settled onto her own bed at home.
*When did she get up there?*
The younger assistant, who had been monitoring everything in the hall through the crystal orbs, had absolutely no idea when that woman had climbed onto Titan's shoulder.
Caught in that confusion, his eyes met the woman's through the crystal orb.
Those white eyes, carrying a depth that seemed to pull him in—for a moment, he had the distinct feeling she was looking directly at him.
*…That's impossible.*
The hall was far away, and the surveillance magic on this crystal orb had been personally laid by the academy's headmaster.
It was not the kind of sloppy magic that a chick who hadn't even formally enrolled yet could see through.
The younger assistant dismissed the thought and channeled mana into the orb to zoom in and confirm the woman's identity.
Inside the crystal orb, Gladia curved the corners of her lips upward in a smooth, quiet smile.
It was a smile full of absolute certainty.
She gave the hilt of the sword she was holding a light twist, raised the silver-white blade gently, and swept it through the air.
Thwack.
"…!"
At that casual motion, the control room's crystal orb went dark without warning—as if it had simply been switched off—leaving nothing but a black screen.
***
*Well. That worked.*
While I'd been watching the show below, I'd felt a gaze resting on me—steady, deliberate.
I sharpened my focus and extended my senses, and sure enough, there were invisible threads of mana drifting through the air, circling the area with stubborn persistence. I followed one of them with my eyes, and—lo and behold—I found myself looking straight at the assistant in the control room on the other side.
I figured I might as well try cutting it, so I gave my sword a light swing.
It snapped clean. Smooth as you like.
The more I use it, the more I appreciate it—⟨Sword Saint⟩ really is something else.
I hadn't expected it could physically sever a surveillance spell built on mana.
Then again, I cut a spell on the very first day. Maybe it's not that surprising.
Anyway. I'd had my fill of sightseeing down below. Time to head back.
I pushed off without a second thought, planting my feet on the giant's massive shoulder and dropping down.
Tracing a perfect path with ⟨Heart-Sight⟩, I crossed the battlefield in silence, weaving between the scattered corpses of monsters.
I made it back to the area I'd started from, and—
"……"
The sight that greeted me the moment I returned made me swallow involuntarily.
My young mistress was in quite a state.
She was still sitting with her arms crossed and legs crossed, but the aura radiating from her tightly pressed lips and the faint crease between her brows was no joke.
Someone else might have thought she was simply playing it cool—but three years of raising this girl meant she couldn't fool me.
Aiolette was sulking.
Apparently, she hadn't appreciated being left alone.
One wrong move and those hungry shadows waiting beneath her feet would open wide and lunge straight for me—the atmosphere was that sharp.
I quickly pulled on the mask of the world's most devoted maid.
"Your loyal servant Gladia, reporting back!"
"Hmph! Why bother coming back after abandoning me? If you like other people so much, just go to them!"
She jutted out her lower lip and snapped her head away. Despite myself, I smiled.
She was grumbling with her mouth, but the moment I returned, the sharp edge in her eyes had already softened—just slightly.
*Adorable.*
Honestly, my young mistress likes me far too much.
"Come now, my lady. Where would I possibly go? The only place my soul finds rest is by your side."
I moved in smoothly and began kneading her shoulders.
"I went and had a good look around, and I'll tell you—no matter how hard those people down there try, they simply don't compare to you, my lady. Every last one of them—not fit to follow in your footsteps."
"…Really?"
Her ears perked up. Her head was still turned away, but the faint twitch of her eyes and the barely loosened fold of her arms gave away exactly how her resolve was wavering.
For the record, it wasn't a lie. They were all fighting reasonably well—but they were no match for Aiolette mk.42, the product of my painstaking, years-long investment. Obviously.
Under my desperate flattery, my young mistress's mood began to visibly thaw.
The hungry shadow-mouths that had been lurking menacingly at her feet melted quietly back into the floor as if they'd never been there.
Still, she seemed determined to preserve the last shred of her pride—she slid her gaze back toward me and fixed me with a sharp glare.
"Even so, what kind of maid wanders off on her own and leaves her mistress alone!"
"Oh, my lady. The only reason I can do something like that is because I trust you completely—down to the bone. You're perfect even without me there."
"You're so shameless—!"
The pout softened into a smooth upward curve. A clear signal that she'd fully forgiven me.
Back to her usual expression—that faintly relaxed, faintly amused look—she uncrossed and recrossed her legs and asked me:
"By the way, Dia—how much longer is this going to go on? I'm starting to get bored."
Even as my young mistress and I were chatting, the rest of the hall was still locked in fierce combat.
I turned my gaze quietly toward the ceiling.
⟨Sword Saint⟩ and ⟨Heart-Sight⟩ resonated together, and I saw straight through to the core of the magic circle woven across the ceiling.
"Probably… it's nearly over now."
The moment my answer reached her ears—
Ping.
With a strange sound, every monster filling the hall dissolved into dust in an instant, as if they had never existed.
The blood-soaked air cleared in a heartbeat, and an uncanny stillness settled over the ruined grand hall.
As the new students looked around in bewilderment, weapons still raised, a young girl's voice rolled down from somewhere beyond the ceiling of the grand hall, resonating heavily in every ear.
[…That's enough.]