After having tea at a café and enjoying some sweets... Rest and the Rosemary sisters had brought their brief holiday in the domain to an end.
Come the start of the week, they would return to the royal capital and resume academy life.
Rest wasted no time heading to the student council room and agreeing to join the student council enforcement. Viola and Primula had likewise already notified them of their intent to take on officer roles.
"Thank you. It's very reassuring to have you all joining us."
Andrew, the Second Prince and student council president, greeted them with a smile and offered a handshake.
Andrew, the ace of the Knight Department's third-year class, was known for his easygoing personality, and was popular not only among the Knight Department but also among the Magic Department students, with whom relations were supposedly strained.
He had an elder brother who was the crown prince, so he would never become king himself... but he certainly seemed to possess more than enough qualities to stand above others.
In any case... even after joining the student council enforcement, it wasn't as though his academy life changed dramatically.
When he told his classmates he had joined the enforcement, the response was a knowing "just as expected."
The commoner students knew about the absurdly outstanding grades Rest had scored in the practical portion of the entrance exam, and the noble students held Rest in high regard since he had been gifted the two sisters, the treasured jewels of House Rosemary.
He was also on close terms with Yuri, the daughter of the knight commander, and Celestine, the duke's young lady, so it seemed they had all predicted he would end up on the student council.
He had worried the enforcement, given its role in maintaining discipline, might be met with wariness, but the reception was quite favorable.
Incidents like the recent assault by the Third Prince, Rodele, were rare, and the most they typically dealt with was mediating fights.
The one exception was... on one occasion, they had the opportunity to catch a suspicious intruder who had broken into the academy.
"I must pluck the young, green fruits and inscribe them upon the campus canvas! Do not stand in my way, young mage!"
"What— How would I know?! Hold it right there, you peeping wretch!"
"Now then, please wait for me, beautiful young ladies! I, the artist of love and peace, shall come to admire you!"
"Halt! Rather, just die, you pervert!"
As for the details of that suspicious individual... that is a story for another time. Suffice it to say that the man had, at great audacity, infiltrated the academy illegally to gather reference material so that he could paint portraits of noble young ladies' changed clothes, athletic outfits, and glimpses of upskirts.
By capturing that suspicious individual and saving the young ladies from danger, Rest's reputation saw an unexpected boost.
Thanks to that, students from other classes had recently begun consulting him about their troubles, and rather than being feared, he felt he was being put to good use.
The one thing that had him a bit on edge was the return of the Third Prince Rodele, who had been on suspension, to the academy.
Rest had braced himself for the possibility of having to step in if Rodele caused another incident, but unexpectedly, it never reached a point where the student council enforcement needed to act.
That was because, taking the previous incident seriously, the academy had quarantined Rodele and his entourage of students, sequestering them in a separate room for classes.
On top of that, academy faculty were now stationed with him at all times, keeping a constant watch.
Celestine, too, appeared to be pulling strings behind the scenes, resulting in an almost suffocating level of surveillance around Rodele.
Despite being treated as though he were some kind of sore, Rodele had reportedly not voiced any particular complaints.
Being made to take classes in a separate room—rather than seeing it as unfair treatment, the arrogant prince, dissatisfied with his placement in Class D, apparently judged it positively as "special treatment" and welcomed it.
He was behaving himself for the time being, and the situation never escalated to the point where Rest needed to intervene on the student council enforcement.
And so, the first three months since Rest had enrolled at the academy drew to a close, and early summer arrived.