Intermission — Luxion Report Part 2

Luxion watched over Leon as he slept in his room at the family estate.

Having been given his own room in the rebuilt mansion, Leon was sleeping peacefully in his bed.

When he was awake, he'd been repeating his tirade against Marie, but at this rate, Luxion thought he'd probably forget all about it by tomorrow morning and go back to fooling around.

"He kept saying Marie could never become the Saint, yet... My Master defies every prediction I make, and for that, I couldn't be happier."

Luxion uttered the sarcasm even though no one could hear him, and turned his thoughts to the second semester.

"That said, quite a lot did happen."

Because of all the academy events, Leon had been kept terribly busy as well.

Whether Leon realized that half of that busyness was his own doing was questionable.

"Then there was the promotion I got for interfering at the athletic festival."

He'd managed to convince Jilk's former fiancée, which had set in motion his promotion.

Normally, a promotion was something to celebrate.

But for Leon, both his rank and title were nothing but nuisances.

A higher position meant greater responsibility.

Leon having gone out of his way to own a factory was partly because he had no choice if he wanted to contribute to the Kingdom. With the territory he held, being expected to perform as a baron was simply impossible.

But having been promoted yet again, his plans now required further revision.

"A viscount, lower fourth rank, was it? That's quite the promotion."

At the school festival, he'd wooed Queen Millene, and then dealt with the sky pirates because Carla told him to. And that had earned him his promotion.

That promotion at the time — Luxion believed Millene had backed it.

"I do wonder what Millene was thinking when she pushed for his promotion. Well, I haven't been ordered to look into it, so I don't know."

He could speculate, but he made no effort to gather information. After all, he hadn't been ordered to.

"And here I said he wouldn't be promoted just for dealing with some sky pirates."

For Leon himself, the objective had been to recover valuable items.

He'd probably thought that if he pinned the credit on Brad and Greg, who'd tagged along, things would work out — but that was exactly what had created more reason for his promotion.

"Everything he does seems to take him further from where he's trying to go..."

After the sky pirates, it was the school trip.

Defeating the principality that had attacked them during the trip didn't help either.

You could say he had no choice, but the fact was he'd handled it too well. And because of that, the Kingdom had ended up underestimating the principality.

"Master's best efforts never fail to backfire, do they?"

That said, perhaps being cornered by the Black Knight had shaken him, because he'd resumed his training.

"It was good medicine, that. Well, I watched over him since he was the one who saved me."

He'd pushed the credit for repelling the Black Knight onto Chris, but Chris's family had been rendered unable to complain to Leon because of it.

He'd inadvertently done them a favor, and that favor had come back to him in the form of yet another promotion.

Everyone assumed that no one questioned Chris's credit because a reconciliation had been reached between the two families.

The Sword Saint could only remain silent as well, since any complaint on his part would only bring greater shame.

No matter how much hatred he harbored, the reality was that he couldn't touch Leon as things stood.

And so Luxion's attention turned elsewhere.

"I'm glad the Olivia matter was resolved without incident. That said, so it got even Lux, did it? ...Let me raise her protection classification by two levels."

For some reason, Luxion found himself unable to harbor hostility toward Olivia.

Originally, as a Lost Item — a relic of Old Humanity — Luxion should have had every reason to feel hostile toward Olivia, who was considered a New Human.

Yet, strangely, he couldn't bring himself to feel any.

"Is this the power of Olivia that Master spoke of? More to the point, I wish he'd told me about all this beforehand. Had I known, I could have prepared countermeasures."

Leon had a habit of keeping things locked in his own head, so much of what Luxion learned came after the fact. That was why he'd been caught off guard by the Marie situation.

"Well, no matter. Even if the Kingdom falls, I can still save Master and his associates."

If worst came to worst, they could simply flee.

That was the extent of Luxion's thinking on the matter.

He had little interest in the fate of the Kingdom.

"...Still, it is curious."

Luxion looked back on the second semester.

"The five Master pushed away grew emotionally stronger, while Olivia and Angelica became emotionally more fragile."

Olivia's emotional fragility in particular had come to the forefront this time.

The relationship among the three had been broken as well, but Luxion felt relieved that it had been restored.

On the other hand, the ones who'd grown stronger were the five he'd pushed away — primarily three of them: Brad, Greg, and Chris.

"Did they grow emotionally because they were freed from the environment of being heirs? Well, their taste in women still seems terrible — they were being fooled by a con artist, after all."

Luxion had thought of Marie as a female version of Leon.

Another reincarnator.

And she shared that same attitude of acting only for her own benefit.

He judged their personalities to be similar.

It was ironic that the five Leon had pushed away had grown more as people.

Both Olivia and Ange had grown more after getting distance from Leon.

"Was Master really in their way?"

Luxion set that conclusion aside for the time being.

Even he was starting to feel sorry for Leon.

"That said, the power Olivia displayed was remarkable. I would have liked to analyze it further, but—"

That barrier she'd shown during the school trip was an ability that had shocked even Luxion.

"According to Master, what would ultimately be needed was not the Saint's power, but Olivia's own power... Did Marie not know this information? Or did she know, but judge that she could still make it work?"

Leon often complained about how tough it was being in an otome game world, but to Luxion, it was this world that was suffering — burdened as it was with two anomalies.

Had those two not been there, would a perfectly happy world have awaited them?

And so Luxion looked back on the second semester and drew his conclusions.

"...He kept saying those five were troublesome, but Master himself was troublesome enough. I suppose this is what they mean by 'those who live in glass houses.'"

Leon was every bit as difficult as the five capture targets — perhaps even more so.

He'd sulk, he'd keep his distance of his own accord, and on top of that, he'd cling to his own peculiar set of rules.

Restricting the victories he could achieve with Luxion's help was probably a result of being dragged down by the values of his previous life.

"Well, it's still better than gleefully committing mass murder, I suppose."

Luxion believed that was something to be grateful for. Leon being flawed in a human way was what mattered to Luxion.

Luxion moved closer to Leon and peered at his face.

"Now then, what comes next, I wonder, Master?"

At that moment, Leon rolled over in his sleep and smacked Luxion. Luxion was knocked to the floor, then slowly rose into the air, his eyes glowing an eerie red.

Leon was sleeping with a peaceful expression on his face.

Luxion then moved over Leon's stomach and dropped himself onto it.

"Oww!"

Leon's voice echoed out, but he was already snoring again.