“How did you find that? So the Defense Forces have been hiding strategic herbs all this time?”

  “What a damning conclusion. Although, there’s also the possibility that we acquired it right after the Crown Princess demanded it, while the Royal Guard and Imperial Army failed in that task.”

  “Failed? If you bastards allowed us to send troops up north to acquire it we’d have gotten it first.”

  “Look, I don’t control the Ministry of Defense’s regulations on the frontline. That, and it’s not my fault that the men you sent up north nearly started a fight with Fort Lutzow’s garrison."

  Once again, Wilhelm and Alfred butted heads.

  Just today, the shipment of ‘Dragonblue Thyme’ arrived, formally ending the unofficial race between the two brothers. It seemed that Alfred mobilized nearly a thousand knights and an entire brigade since Alexa complained about her lack of magic, and they scoured the entire continent for the herbs.

  The only thing they found was barely even a pound of Redhill Moss from an unfortunate old alchemist from the south. Worse, something nasty apparently happened when the men Alfred mobilized tried to ‘acquire’ it.

  On the other hand, Wilhelm and the Defense Forces managed to acquire both herbs in great quantities, possibly enough that Alexa would be able to have the required aiding elixirs for her heart until she reached the fourth circle, and finish her manaheart’s ‘formation stage’.

  By the time she finished that stage, her heart would probably be strong enough to withstand the next stages of her magic’s journey.

  While Wilhelm had never divulged how the Defense Forces acquired it, as he seemed utterly tight-lipped about any operations being undertaken in the north that weren’t known to the general public, the situation was still clear.

  Wilhelm and the Defense Forces won.

  On the other hand, Alfred, alongside the Royal Guard and the Imperial Army, lost.

  “I understand that this is a bitter humiliation to the Imperial Army and our proud knights,” Alexa said, sighing. “But seriously, I refuse this ridiculous notion that the branches of our military have to have bitter enmity with each other. Please cease the pointless fight.”

  “Your Highness,” Alfred turned to Alexa. “I apologize for losing this badly to this…creature, but I assure you I’ll more than make up for it. I’ll be handling the concoction of the aiding elixir and your formation ritual. I’ve already assembled four of the finest doctors in Perlenstadt—”

  Alexa yawned.

  “It’s morning and I have to deal with such nonsense,” she grumbled, looking to her side. “Alfred, please take the loss with grace. I know you all worked hard, and I recognize it faithfully. I admit I may have fueled the competition between the two of you, but that game ends now that the ingredients I need are here. Wilhelm here isn’t some clueless guy; he suffers from the same ailment as I, and has true experience handling it. Can you say the same for the doctors you hired?”

  Alfred looked down.

  “They’re…the best in their fields.”

  “And?”

  “...I apologize. You’re right. They’re the same doctors who failed to treat you years ago anyway. Have it your way, Your Highness.”

  Alexa finally smiled, as Alfred learned to let go of his massive knightly pride. On the other hand, Wilhelm seemed silent on the side. Sure, he was close to gloating about his victory earlier, but somehow, he didn’t push further. Instead, he just stood there like a good soldier would.

  Each day that passed as she interacted with him and sometimes, his buddies, Alexa started to feel different about them. Sure, they were cold, unhealthy, gloomy, and miserable. But their eyes held that silent discipline of men who had seen hell and chose to stay in it.

  Unlike the Royal Guard and the Imperial Army, they fought real foes on a daily basis, yet, they received ire and disgust. Worse, all of that was directed at them simply because they bore the toll of fighting a war against malevolent monsters in their mind and body.

  Their pride therefore wasn’t for show, because, to whom would they show it? No one.

  Instead, it was hidden underneath. They viewed themselves as unsung defenders of mankind, nothing more, nothing less. To Alexa, that was quite pitiful, yet it was also more admirable than the false pride of so-called ‘professional soldiers’ who only guarded the interior.

  Therefore, she respected it.

  Maybe she could even learn a thing or two about it. Internally, her mind recoiled at that, as she related more to people like Alfred and Adele. But, well…seeing Wilhelm in front of her was starting to change her views, bit by bit.

  “In any case,” Alexa spoke again. “It is settled now. I shall do the final push to meet Wilhelm’s requirements, then I’ll attempt a formation ritual.”

  She looked down at her gloved hand, her lips straightening into a bitter thin line. Would all of her effort pay off? Worse, the fact that Wilhelm kept refusing to divulge how they acquired such an amount of herbs was starting to eat up at her mind.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  What if it wasn’t just her effort that went into this?

  She remembered that Alfred once said that such herbs only existed in overrun territories. Lately, she’d been thinking about that particular detail more and more. What if that was why Wilhelm kept himself tight-lipped? Did they have to send men to overrun territory to acquire this?

  She shook those thoughts away. She didn’t like things that gnawed on her mind. Instead, she curled her fist. Regardless of whether she knew the answer or not, whatever effort she and anyone placed into this mini-project was something that couldn’t go in vain.

  “I’ll try not to fail this,” she declared. “Not just for myself, but for the Empire itself. I’ll do my best to unlock my magic, that, I faithfully swear. I extend my deep thanks to the two of you, and to all the people who acquired these herbs for me while I sat here in the academy.”

  Alexa gave the two an innocent, thankful smile. The kind that would make all men feel the need to protect such a precious girl like her.

  The two men, as if their previous rivalry had stopped, both stiffly saluted. Then, they chanted different replies.

  “Long live Her Highness!” Alfred proudly said.

  “For the eternal defense of mankind,” Wilhelm grimly said.

  And with just those words, Alexa started to understand their motivations. Alfred did all of that to please her, while Wilhelm did all of that for mankind—which she didn’t fully understand yet.

  Only then did she realize that neither of their motives sat right with her.

  Wilhelm may be ridiculously effective, but his loyalty did not lie with her. Alfred may be ridiculously loyal, but his effectiveness wasn’t up there.

  She groaned.

  Why can’t I just have my cake and eat it too? So annoying…

  Still, she was thankful, so very thankful.

  +++

  Days passed, as Alexa, under Wilhelm’s tutoring, finished the rest of her training. It was hard, and it tired her a lot, because she had to push her body just to reach L plus stats, but by Friday, she managed to do it.

  It was done.

  She looked at her stats.

  Then, she looked at her tutorial questline.

  Indeed, instead of X marks, both sub-quest #1 and sub-quest #3 now had a check mark on them. Only sub-quest #2, which required her to have a magic circle and improve it, had none.

  She stood up from her bed, stretching herself as she looked at the expanse of the academy from the Hohle Dormitory building. Wilhelm already tested her multiple times with weaker samples, checking her reaction to each concentration and formulation.

  Yesterday, he declared that he had the elixir best customized for her. That was it.

  Today, therefore, was the day. Apparently, Alexa also wouldn’t use the official ‘mana condenser’ used by students of the academy for the formation ritual. Wilhelm deemed it a standard one, enough for students with normal, healthy hearts.

  She needed a more delicate mana condenser. Apparently, he found an ancient mana condenser on the 8th floor of the Great Dungeon. Of course, Alexa had never ventured to that place.

  That place was scary, and in the novel, the Archdemon of Sloth launched the attack from the Great Dungeon. Monsters and demons flooded from that place, slaughtering people both in the Imperial Capital and the Grand Academy of Lotharingia.

  Even now, it must be infested by monsters, as she’d heard the miasma from the dungeon continued to increase. Of course, the old boys of the academy found that as good news, as they could get more monster cores and XP every time they ventured into its depths for their expeditions, but for a young lady like Alexa, that was quite scary.

  “Calm down,” she patted her heart, as her heartbeat quickened, both from the excitement of maybe being able to do magic on her own, and at the fear of failing or something going wrong. She’d read the novel last night, and the attack was still far away.

  But she couldn’t trust that. The ‘system’ said that while the Iron Saintess novel predicted the future in general it wasn’t perfect. Any quick changes she makes could have a profound impact on the events that might not be updated immediately on her magical copy.

  Going down to the Great Dungeon and using some unknown ritual area for her formation ritual was a risk. Even Wilhelm seemed to be silently considering that risk. For the past week, he’d been meeting a lot with Phoebe, and the first troops of the Fuchs Brigade arrived near Perlenstadt.

  With approval from Headmaster Olston, a platoon of ‘shieldguards’ and ‘casters’ from the so-called 47th Infantry Battalion, a part of the Fuchs Brigade, would be entering the dungeon for a ‘routine scouting mission’ today. Even if Alexa was a clueless girl in military matters, she knew that Wilhelm definitely did not align those schedules by coincidence.

  He definitely was setting up so many precautions and emergency measures just for her. It made her feel extra special, but also scared. Were the stakes truly this high?

  “That peasant,” she pouted a bit. “He helps me so much and he’s starting to prioritize me, but he might be going too far and now I’m scared…”

  She wished that peasant would at least console her, and tell her, ‘Ah, yes, the amount of security we’re doing for a ritual done by normal students casually is totally nothing!’, but none of that came from Wilhelm’s lips.

  A knock distracted Alexa from her thoughts. Adele was outside, calling for her. Right, take a bath and prepare herself. If she was going to unlock her magic in such a high-stakes situation, she must be at her best appearance possible!

  Now, that truly made her feel better.