"I can relay your message; you can tell it to me," Asher said as Elizabeth felt the presence of the other students move away from the reception area.

  Why? They didn't have any faith in their Disciplinary chief?

  "I could do that, yes," Elizabeth said, nodding, letting her mana course through her body. She tuned it to Lightning and let it manifest on her hair, "But this is a private affair, besides…The student council is there to listen to the student's problems, right?"

  Not that Elizabeth would use them for that.

  "So are the Disciplinary Committee." Asher said back as his hair turned from silver hair to almost silver energy, "You can trust us too."

  Elizabeth wasn't going to ever do that, she knew that, Asher knew that, hell, at this point, the students that had run away from the building were certain of that.

  "The Disciplinary Committee is there to police the school and make sure the students follow the rules. Did they implement a new ruling that prohibited students from speaking with the Student Council President?" Elizabeth asked with a smirk on her face; she really should be de-escalating the issue.

  But she couldn't. This was a perfect chance to test the waters, "Identify".

  "Well, would you look at that…" Elizabeth hadn't seen that in some time.

  "I can't allow you to see Evangeline." Asher said as a pair of sabers made of white energy manifested on his hands.

  So it would end like that, huh? Not that Elizabeth would mind it; she really wanted to deal with them before it became a five vs three. Even if Elizabeth was powerful and she had full confidence in Rossie and Rena, better to deal with as many members as she could earlier.

  "Let her come in, Asher," Then, before Elizabeth was even able to start getting into the fun part, the sound of a voice came from the speaker system. It was a regal-sounding voice; it was...

  "As you wish Evangeline," Asher said powering down, "Come this way, as for everyone else. Vacate the building and make sure there isn't anyone near the building or in the immediate areas."

  Yikes, so he really wanted to make Elizabeth fight them?

  "Don't get your hopes up Starbright," Asher said as he turned to Elizabeth, the other students had started rushing out of the room and more and more people started coming down from the stairs, "This is standard procedure when Evangeline is to meet someone we deem potentially dangerous, you aren't the first and will not be the last one who is given such treatment."

  Well, how many people did they even meet that required this? Elizabeth nodded at those words nonetheless and waited till the wave of people slowed down; she would prepare for what was going to come next; this was the important bit, after all.

  "We are ready." Then, the elevator door opened at the end, revealing Selen Dawnstrike, her orange hair tied in a ponytail behind her, and Elizabeth could see the phantom of white wings behind her.

  Elizabeth had never forgotten who and what that girl was, "Come on then, you wanted to meet Evangeline." Asher said walking towards the Elevator.

  Elizabeth followed half a second later and stood in the middle of the Elevator. To her right stood Asher Sterling, and to Elizabeth's left stood Selen Dawnstrike.

  Was it some type of way to attempt and pressure her? Perhaps, but to Elizabeth, this was fine; having them this close meant that if it devolved into a fight, then she would have them close enough to counterattack.

  And Elizabeth didn't think they would be able to counteract her fast enough from this distance.

  "So?" Selen suddenly started speaking, "Where are your pink-haired friend? The red-haired one? The blue-haired one?"

  What?

  "Rossaline Singh, Watanabe Rena and finally Michael Shepherd." Asher said after Selen.

  "They are waiting for me at home," Elizabeth said, "At least Rossie and Rena. I haven't seen Michael since he came to tell us about the plans of the school to attempt and restrain our movements."

  And that was a thing, she still didn't fully understand why he had done so, he had Seen his past, or some of it, of that Elizabeth was sure, but even after doing so, he decided to help them?

  Elizabeth didn't understand what he was thinking; if Elizabeth had been hit with the type of memories that Michael had...well, she wasn't sure what she would have done; what Michael, Rossie, and Rena went through was horrible.

  "Hmm...." Selen hummed to herself, "Well, better this way, I don't want to speak ill of them, but if Rossaline wasn't fated to be a Hero then she would have been sent to prison and the key to her cell would have been lost."

  Rude, Rossie didn't...well, she probably did deserve some of that, but she was getting better! Elizabeth was sure that she was at the very least asking for consent nowadays!

  She hoped, at least.

  "Rena is a victim," Elizabeth decided to say, she wouldn't say anything about Rossie though.

  "She is a Hero, whatever happens to her is for a reason. A true Hero can and will always surpass whatever comes their way," Selen said turning to Elizabeth, "That's what Heroes do, her past may be tragic, but that is just something that needed to happen."

  "...What?" Elizabeth turned to Selen, her hand moved before she could process what she was doing, "She was tortured, starved, raped, abused, her identity got denied from her...and you knew?"

  "Careful-" Asher attempted to say something, but Selen raised her hand, stopping him.

  "Of course we knew, we know everything that happens on school grounds and to our students," Selen answered, the girl had guts, Elizabeth was holding her by the neck against the wall, she was exerting as much strength as she could but even so, her Dragon Claw was hitting a barrier, a barrier of some kind was between her Claw and the neck of the orange-haired girl. "We know the things that Akira the Former Hero did, we know of the things that Rossaline does to the female students, we know of the things you do, the things that your friends do when you aren't near... And of the things that hide within your Shadows."

  Tch...

  "We are about to arrive, so unless you want to start your talk with Evangeline tied, I advise you to let go, Starbright." Asher said from behind, "We respect and tolerate your outburst since you are, even like this, a Hero. But we will not risk Evangeline."

  "Tch..." Elizabeth let go of Selen and turned to look at her hand...or well, Claw really.

  "So a Dragon Hero huh," Selen said smirking, "Perhaps you are on the route to turn into a Fallen Hero too? I can't wait to see how you germinate, you surround yourself with a Fallen Healer a Fallen Sword Saint and have talks with a Broken Sage, this should be good."

  Elizabeth really was not liking this know it all attitude from the school council, Elizabeth wanted to pull her Identify into Selen just to see how this girl had managed to prevent her from pretending to crush her throat. Because Elizabeth wasn't going to do so, totally wasn't going to murder this girl who had caused Rossie so much trouble and was speaking out of her ass about her girlfriends.

  Totally.

  "Rossie and Rena aren't fallen anything," Elizabeth said in the end, "Rossie is doing her best to come to terms with who she is and who she was, Rena is overcoming her problems one at the time and looking to the future."

  And that is what was important to Elizabeth, "Rossie wants to become a Mom and take care of the people that she loves, Rena wants to embrace love even though she fears being hurt again. They are doing their best in the best possible way they can, even though both got hurt. Their efforts aren't merely there for the amusement of other people, their stories aren't merely the recountings of something as banal as a 'Hero's Journey'. They are real people."

  And Elizabeth hated with all her being the fact that other people merely thought of them as something as stupid and childish as a Hero, especially when all the Heroes that Elizabeth had met were people that abused their power.

  Hypocrites that pretended to be better than the rest; at least her parents never pretended to be something that they weren't. Papa while he wielded the name of a Hero, he was always honest about what he wanted to protect, he wasn't a Hero because he wanted to be fawned on by the populace, he was a Hero because he wanted to protect his family.

  Mother didn't pretend to be someone who she wasn't either, she was The Mother of Magical Girls because she wanted to help girls, the fact that she gushed over them from time to time was a side bonus to her, even if a girl wasn't pretty, so long she needed help, so long she needed rescue, Mother would rescue her...And then turn her pretty with magic, but that was also beside the point.

  They never pretended to be something they weren't nor wielded their power in the name of something as abstract as saying that they were Justice like Akira did.

  "Tell me, Asher Sterling, Selen Dawnstrike. Do you think that what you do is Justice?" Elizabeth decided to ask just in case; perhaps her time with the student council could be more tolerable.

  "What we do isn't Justice," Selen answered as she dusted her clothes off.

  "We aren't the ones who decide Justice, we are merely the servants of someone whose job is to record," Asher answered before Selen could say anything else.

  And at that point the elevator door opened, Elizabeth turned there and found Magnus and Lily waiting there, the first one had a scowl on his face and seemed...off.

  While Lily sported the same neutral expression as she stared at Elizabeth, "Evangeline is waiting." And said nothing else.

  Elizabeth shrugged at the interaction and started walking out of the Elevator, the first thing she noticed as her feet touched the ground was that there seemed to be some type of mana dampers embedded into the floor.

  As soon as her feet touched the ground the little mana ambient mana that had stuck to her seemed to be drained away, and some of her Mana that she had worked to extend outwards and give herself the same mana density that a C-Tier.

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  "Problems Starbright?" Asher said with a smirk on his face, Elizabeth noticed that his Mana didn't seem to be sapped away.

  "Stop that Asher," Lily said with a frown, "Elizabeth is a guest, and more importantly, she is the only confirmed Hero we have left."

  "This is pointless, if she isn't a Hero then there is nothing she can do to us." Magnus said as his frown deepened and he brought a tablet, "If she is a Hero then this will be meaningless as [Fate] will bend itself to her aid."

  "We still need to be sure, she could be an irregular, an aberration, something that can interfer with the narrative. In which case she may have ways to interact or affect the [Characters]." Selen said, "The [Characters] we have confirmed were twisted, and the ones that remain aren't acting like [Protagonists]."

  ...Were they nuts?

  "Keep her as down as possible, but not that low, Lower D-Tier at the minimum." Asher said passing behind Magnus, "And be ready, if she seems to be preparing to do anything strip her of all her Mana. Those that wield the power of [The World] should not point their weapons against [Akasha's Servants]."

  Well...that was plenty interesting.

  "We will be waiting inside," Selen said as she walked past Magnus and entered into the room behind Magnus and Lily.

  "Sorry about that, Elizabeth," Lily said with a wry smile, "Asher is..."

  "Oppressive, prideful, over worrying." Magnus finished for Lily as he tampered with the tablet and Elizabeth felt the floor starting to sap more and more of her Mana.

  She didn't replace the Mana that was being sapped away; instead, she worked towards keeping just barely above the threshold that the sappers left her.

  "He is a loyal [Guardian], so is Selen, they worry about our liege...I am sure you understand the feeling that Evangeline has," Lily said as she stared pointedly at her shadow, "You must have the same problems dealing with your servants"

  She did not, her shadow dragons never caused this type of problems...or she hoped so at least.

  "No, I do not have those problems." Elizabeth decided to trust in Sebastian's managing her minions before, and now in Reginald and Mordred doing well at that job, "A good Servant never causes problems to their liege, nor makes them enemies that they don't need."

  And that was the thing, wasn't it?

  "...I see..." Lily said sighing, "We aren't enemies to a [Hero], we do our best to help [Heroes]."

  "It doesn't feel like that," Elizabeth said, pointing down, "Or what? You think my titles are a lie?"

  Elizabeth smirked as she summoned her own status screen and made it visible to the people in front of her, or well, one of them. The one she wielded as a Magical girl.

  "That one?" Lily said with a weird smile, "We could take it into consideration. Yes, Magical Girls do are [Protagonists], but you are so much more than that, isn't that right?"

  Lily's hair started to shine with the red color of [Fire Mana], "[Shadow Empress]?" At that point, Elizabeth felt something pierce the first layer of her Layered Safeguard. "There it is..."

  And like that, the second status screen manifested. "[Shadow Empress - Shadow Villain], some people thought you would become the hope of Shadow Aligned users, that you would take in the legacy of Echidna and become the light that shone from the darkness..."

  Not that Elizabeth became that...

  And as soon as the second status screen manifested Elizabeth felt a stronger tug at her mana reserves, so strong that she had to compensate it by increasing the amount of mana that was sapped. Because the thing was attempting to pull so much mana that a normal C-Tier would probably die.

  "...So she was indeed hiding her power, huh." Magnus said as he read the screen on his hand.

  How?

  "You do understand why we would be wary of a blonde Villainess like you right?" Lily said with a smile as she pointed at the status screen, to be precise at the part that stated her [Tier]. The status screen said [A-Tier].

  ...right.

  "So? That means your student council will become my enemy after all?" Elizabeth said as she extended her shadows behind her, eyes opening and dragon maws manifesting.

  "No," Lily said as the fire attempted to consume the shadows. Somehow, it was managing to do so, that was a new one. "[Villains] can also become [Protagonists] depending on the setting, and we aren't quite sure what the [Setting] of this place will be, that is for the [Director] of this [World], and Evangeline will be there to record it."

  ....They were nuts, all of them.

  "So you will become mere spectators of what is to happen?" Elizabeth asked, "Is that it? You will not be an enemy unless I attempt to turn my fangs to you? Couldn't there be an easier way to tell me this?"

  "Yes," Lily said without hesitation, "We are the [Servants] of Evangeline. And she is in turn a [Servant of The Akashic Records]."

  Yes, she knew that.

  "Then why are you all blocking my [Identify]." Elizabeth said raising her eyebrow, "If you aren't enemies, why are you perusing my [Status] while not letting me do so? You claim to not be my enemies."

  "No, I said we aren't [Enemies] of a [Protagonist]," Lily said shaking her head, the mana behind her calmed, so Elizabeth powered down her shadows too, "We have yet to decide or learn what you are. You could be a [Protagonist] and we would be your allies, you could be an [Antagonist] and we would respect that and let you do what you want so long you keep to the [Rules]. Or you could be an [Irregular], something that entered through the cracks into our world...Something that isn't tied by [Akasha]..."

  Well, that was something very specific to be a mistake or fear.

  "You know many like those?" Elizabeth asked.

  "One, we knew of one, but he was assigned the [Hero] label, so even while irregular, he was accepted." Lily said, turning to the door and pointing it with her hand, "Let's go then, Elizabeth; Evangeline awaits us."

  ...That would be an interesting thing to see.