I Became the Familiar of a Chuunibyou Gloomy Girl

“…Sigh.”

After the academy ended, Estelle, returning to the dormitory, releases the deep sigh she had been holding back until now.

And she thinks.

She doesn’t understand how things turned out this way.

‘I didn’t want a full-on confrontation like this.’

Estelle threw something onto Ariel’s desk simply because she was so annoyed that Ariel wasn’t paying even the slightest attention to her.

She did such an aggressive act just to get Ariel’s attention, or more precisely, to tell her not to treat her like she doesn’t exist, but contrary to her expectations, Estelle drew too much attention.

This happened clearly due to Estelle’s mistake.

Given that the other party was Ariel, the lady of the Cielnoir family, Estelle should have been very careful in her reaction, but Estelle, who had hardly experienced dealing with someone above her throughout her life, treated Ariel just like other lower nobles who trembled before her.

“I must make amends, absolutely.”

Anyone can make mistakes in life, especially those who haven’t matured into adults, but Estelle doesn’t think that way at all.

Because Estelle is not an ordinary person, she’s the lady of the empire’s foremost ducal family.

Such an Estelle must never make mistakes.

A mistake means a loss of authority.

For nobles, who value authority more than life itself, especially for the Dain Ducal family, which is the noblest among nobles, Estelle has literally suffered critical damage from this incident.

Flutter—

“…Good.”

Estelle opens a book she hadn’t bothered to take out until now.

There was no title written on the book, but even someone with no talent for magic would tremble feeling magical power upon seeing it.

If Estelle were to use the secret knowledge written in this book, she could aim not just for the upper ranks but for the very top in academics.

Of course, this is not through normal means. If it were a normal route, Estelle would have taken out this book from the beginning.

‘It can’t be helped.’

The reason Estelle has taken out this book is simple: Ariel’s existence.

Estelle has no choice but to overwhelm Ariel with outstanding grades.

Only by showing that she is so competent and genius that she’s on a different level from Ariel can she prevent the defection of lower nobles. That’s the only way to maintain her family’s authority.

Estelle’s obsession with her family’s authority is not strange at all.

A noble family is like one giant living organism.

All nobles are like cells moving to maintain the organism called the family.

Unless they’re cancer cells, no cells would let the body die.

“Um… honestly, I don’t need to have such good grades… it’s not like they’ll do anything for me at home even if they improve… just enough to save face—”

Bang—!

“Hi-hiik… I understand…”

Hmm, it’s nice and quiet now.

Ariel, who had looked like the world was ending when I tore up her notes, now has a different kind of world-ending expression.

It seems she had a routine where she would put on airs with all her might at the academy, using up all her energy, and then shut herself in her room to recharge that spent energy after school… while it’s admirable from my perspective as a homebody, it’s a pity the timing isn’t good.

‘I’ll protect her to a certain extent… but Ariel herself needs to become stronger too.’

Is it because I’ve become this body, an undead?

As I keep thinking about Ariel’s future, I’m filled with negative predictions.

I’ll be at her side to protect her, but wouldn’t it be safer if Ariel herself had power too?

It’s best to reduce the possible scenarios as much as possible.

Besides, if Ariel gets good grades, the treatment I receive will improve quite a bit too.

[Ugh… disgusting…]

[…It doesn’t have that distinctive undead smell, but it’s still unpleasant all the same.]

Since I’m not a creature made of magical power and was summoned through Incarnation, I don’t return anywhere even if the summoning or familiar contract is canceled.

As I couldn’t leave Ariel’s side, I just stayed by her side, but such behavior naturally attracted all sorts of attention.

Even students who are friendly to Ariel treat me literally like a walking corpse.

Objectively speaking, I am indeed a corpse… no, anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.

All students frown when they see me, run away when I approach, and in severe cases, even curse at me openly. It’s hardly the treatment a familiar of Ariel’s should receive.

They say even a slave of a high-ranking official is different from an ordinary slave, so as Ariel’s level rises, such behavior toward me should stop too. Good, good.

“Um… so the phrases of magical incantation influence each other in a causally dependent (緣起) relationship, meaning that no magical phrase is independent or self-existing, and without all conditions and causes, there’s no result, which ultimately means there’s no phenomenon that can’t be created through magical formulas and incantations… oh… that’s pretty cool… ahem.”

Ariel, who at first looked at the notebook I created with a lot of questions on her face, not understanding what was going on, is now reading the text with sparkling eyes as if she had never been confused.

Judging by the strange sounds she makes in between, it seems she’s treating the notebook I created more like a novel than a textbook.

Honestly, I feel the same way.

What kind of study is this? It’s just a setting book full of chuunibyou settings.

According to the sourceless knowledge forcibly stuffed into my head, it’s really the law of this world, so it is indeed a setting book… sigh, I don’t know.

‘Since the notebook was created out of thin air, it’s probably not a lie, so it should be fine.’

Seeing that a notebook with the knowledge from my head was created out of thin air when I used magic, there’s no point in doubting the knowledge in my head anymore.

No, if knowledge had to appear, couldn’t there be some common sense about this world too? The knowledge is so biased that the sense of disconnect is too great.

“The biggest difference between magical formulas and incantations is self-suggestion; since everyone has their own world, when self-suggestion reaches its extreme, one can deceive the worlds of others with suggestion, which is called incantation. This proves that the saying ‘words become seeds’ is true, and is the reason why sentences spoken in dragon language (龍言) become reality—”

Anyway, I’m glad she’s reading it with such enjoyment.

Honestly, it still feels like playing with settings, so calling it study is quite embarrassing, but if she’s satisfied, it’s fine. It’s not a lie, after all.

The academy is basically a hostel for local nobles’ hostages disguised as an educational facility, but today its meaning has considerably faded.

Even if it originated as a hostel for hostages, as a result of consistently educating these hostages over centuries to maintain the pretense of education, today’s academy sufficiently lives up to its name, serving as a place of education that leads the empire’s martial arts and magic.

It’s no exaggeration to say that all of the empire’s power and authority come from the academy.

“Today, I will lecture on the introduction to magical imagination.”

As such, the academy has always been dedicated to educating students.

Even students with no talent can be at least equal to the average foreign martial artist or magician by graduation, as the academy’s educational curriculum is meticulously organized.

“Magical imagination…introduction…?”

“Are there people who don’t know that? Ah, right. There are commoners too.”

And that means the difficulty of the initial classes is set very easy.

For some wealthy nobles who have had advance learning through home magic tutors, the first-year classes at the academy are as uninteresting as watching a movie with a twist ending for the second time.

Noble students who quickly lose interest in the class start doing other things openly while the teacher is conducting the class.

While nobles value prestige above all else, the nobles here are students who haven’t become adults yet, so this situation is unavoidable.

“…Hmm.”

And the teacher, Felix, standing in front, doesn’t hide his discomfort.

Although he’s currently teaching a first-year class, Felix is no ordinary magician, given that he’s entrusted with being an academy teacher.

Felix, who has taken charge of a first-year class after a long time, laments upon seeing the quality of the students, and then thinks.

That he needs to establish dominance.

That he must show them that none of the classes are useless.

“Estelle le Dain, Ariel le Cielnoir.”

“Yes.”

“…?”

The easiest way to subdue a group is to subdue the highest-ranking individuals in that group.

Given the characteristic of nobles where status equals rank, if he subdues Estelle and Ariel, who have the highest status in this classroom, the noble students will not openly do other things during class.

“Seeing that both of you haven’t been focusing on the class, you must know a lot about magical imagination. Then, may I ask you a question?”

“A question… Yes, go ahead.”

“…Yes.”

“It’s widely known that magical incantation works as self-suggestion, first deceiving oneself and ultimately deceiving the world to cause magical phenomena. Theoretically, if one speaks something with a very strong will, even without any incantation phrases, since it’s also self-suggestion, it should become magic, in other words, become the legendary word-command and change reality, but this word-command phenomenon cannot occur except with the speech of dragons, known as dragon language, which are at the pinnacle of living beings. What do you think is the reason?”

Having said that, Felix looks up at the two students with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth.

This is a question that students who have just entered the academy cannot possibly answer.

Not only is the question too abstract, but each word used to explain or even guess at it basically requires education at the fourth year or above to understand exactly what the word means.

Nevertheless, since the question itself looks so easy on the surface, this question has been used quite frequently to thoroughly embarrass those who pretend to know about magic.

‘I’m sorry, kids. I know that prestige and face are the life of nobles, but if I don’t do this, the quality of the class—’

“That’s because the words humans use are not a unified language.”

“—…What?”

And then Felix doubts his ears upon hearing Estelle’s answer. speech cannot use word-command magic like dragons who all use the same language because human language is not unified.

Estelle’s answer is just an answer sheet with only the correct answer, literally, with the middle part completely missing.

However, given Estelle’s deflated attitude as if asking why he would ask such a thing, along with the fact that the current magical academic world was reaching a similar conclusion to Estelle’s answer, Felix can’t help but be confused.

‘…How? Did she just happen to guess correctly? If it’s a matter of whether it’s right or wrong, her statement is certainly correct… No, it’s not correct. There’s no solution.’

“…It’s a good guess, but there’s no explanation in the middle.”

“So you’re saying it’s correct. Hehe, thank you.”

“…”

At Estelle’s words, Felix fails to maintain his expression, and having confirmed this, Estelle removes Felix from her concern and glances at Ariel with a faint smile.

Estelle’s expression makes it clear what she’s thinking just by looking at it.

Acting very childishly as befitting her age, Estelle is doing her best to make Ariel, who cannot answer the teacher’s question, a laughingstock.

“Ariel is quiet? Ah, perhaps… you weren’t waiting for me to answer, were you?”

“Black rose.”

“…Huh? Rose? What strange… talk… is… hmm?”

However, Estelle cannot properly finish her words.

Estelle blinks, doubting her eyes whether she’s seeing correctly.

No, not just Estelle.

Felix standing at the front, and the students who were focusing their attention on the sudden commotion.

They all close their mouths as they see the black rose that suddenly appeared in Ariel’s hand.

Just now, Ariel didn’t use any magic.

More precisely, she didn’t use magic as defined by magical studies.

“…Word-command?”

With a word that someone may have said, the classroom falls into silence.