Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 422 A New Two-Choice Question
It was springtime.

As the Erles Higher Magic Academy was about to begin its semester, Ritas and his group planned to leave the Western Regions.

After reuniting with Miriam, who was "loaned out," and the butler Dino, Ritas saw the gifts from the "White Wing Evangelical Fellowship."

Is she planning to go back to the academy with you?

Looking at the Evangelical Fellow, the "holy casket" of the Gospel Church, Ritas asked Miriam beside her.

"Hahaha."

Miriam gave a dry laugh, then his gaze darkened and he turned away to the side.
"My opinion is probably the least valued among us."

Although this trip to the Westlands revealed a corner of Miriam's past and gave him many new identities—such as the Holy Son of the White Wing Evangelical Church and a distinguished guest of the Elson family of the Westlands—all of these identities, including his status as Ritas's student, were subtle ones that he had no say in.

Of course, if one had to quantify it, Miriam still held some influence within the White Wing Evangelical Church. At the very least, if one were determined enough, Perff certainly wouldn't choose to go against his wishes.

However, Ritas had instructed that if Miriam wanted to obtain more information about the saintess after leaving the Western Regions, he must be on friendly terms with Perf.

Furthermore, besides its connection to the Saintess, the White Wing Gospel Church may have secretly received support from the forces of the Sages. Therefore, in the past, the Elson family had to make certain compromises with them, allowing the Saintess's faith to continue to this day.

Therefore, Miriam, who also did not want to miss the information about the first sage and wanted to glean information about what had happened in the past seven hundred years through the actions of the sage lineage, naturally could not refuse Perfume outright.

"The chaos in the Western Regions has not yet subsided, and the Evangelical Fellowship must be short-handed. Are you sure you want to leave at this time, Your Excellency Saint Du?"

Although Ritas felt he probably couldn't influence the other party's will, he still asked the question on behalf of his student.

"Don't worry too much about me. Just treat me as a shelf to store the Saintess's weapons, you evil Berengrom."

A bright smile appeared on Perfumer's face beneath her hood as she responded.

"A weapon stand won't insult others."

Ritas said calmly, not really caring about Perfumer's attitude.

In fact, Perlff is probably the only person who calls him "Berengrom".

Perhaps they felt that calling someone by their first name wouldn't be offensive, but calling them by their surname would be too much because there are too many people with the surname "Elson" in the Westerlands?

Ritas didn't quite understand, nor did he want to understand.

"Moreover, you can't just be a weapon stand. It's fine outside the academy, but if you want to stay by the side of the Miriam students inside the academy, you'll need to find a way to transfer to Ers Academy and become a student yourself."

Ritas reminded him.

In a normal academy, with the power of the Elson family or the Evangelical Fellowship, it would be easy to place a student there.

But unlike before, the headmaster of Earls College would be stationed there 24 hours a day.
No one can move in without Livis's permission.

"Furthermore, the only person we can allow is yourself. Those pilgrims who are your followers cannot come along."

"Well"

Faced with Ritas's unquestionable tone and request, Perfumer was very reluctant. However, in order to fulfill her "mission," she nodded and agreed to these demands.

"Um"

Soon after, the carriages returning to Spring City officially set off.

To prevent Perfu from jumping out of the carriage midway and running back to Spring with it, and since the Elson family didn't need another carriage, the carriage on Ritas's side currently only contained himself, the unfolded white disc, and perhaps Wayne, who was either secretly observing or sleeping.

"Are you feeling unwell, Goddess of Bathing?"

Hearing the goddess of bathing's contemplative voice, Ritas asked.

"Just now, I actually secretly floated out and took a look at what that Miss Saintess looks like. Guess what?"

"So cute, do you want to be a fan?"

"Yes, yes, cute, I want to be single. No! I'm not that indecent! I just feel like I've seen Pearly somewhere before!"

The goddess of the bath, whose voice had been uttered with infatuation by Ritas's words, said with a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance.

"Hey~"

Ritas gave a curt, emotionless reply.

The bathing goddess looks familiar? How strange!
"Tsk. I know~ At this point, it doesn't matter whether my information is true or false~ Little Li's wings have already hardened~ None of John's companions know any goddesses or anything like that, so don't take their words to heart—"

She had briefly looked at the "slice" before, and then discovered that among the newly introduced characters, whether it was John's companions or the group of saints and sages, there was a bath goddess she had never seen before, who spoke with a mix of sarcasm and self-abandonment.

"I don't think it's entirely the goddess of bathing's fault."

Ritas, however, spoke fairly.

Combining the already destroyed world from which Estria originated, the existence that is suspected to be the true Miriam, and the various pieces of information previously provided by the Goddess of Bath, Ritas inexplicably felt that John and his world-destroying organization had appeared out of thin air "once only."

Speaking of Estria.

The "unresolved matter" in the Western Regions that Ritas had been concerned about was Estria.

He actually wanted to have a proper talk with Estria. He could occasionally sense that Estria was following them. However, she never showed herself, and he didn't have a good solution.

Even with a general understanding of Estria's background, the girl's logic and goals remain shrouded in mystery.

What we know now is that Estria possesses power surpassing that of most people in the world. She sometimes follows one of them, and generally does not have any ill intentions. She will even lend a helping hand after certain conditions are met.
The reason her actions always seem strange, as if she's burdened by some constraint, is perhaps to avoid something like the "grandfather paradox," which could cause her entire existence to disappear.
However, given how this world operates, Estria is not strictly speaking from the "future."
In short, Ritas is currently unable to understand Estria's situation and cannot focus all his energy on her.

The most he could do was to trace back a little bit from the information he obtained from the "temple of truth" in the fairy tale world.

These books, seemingly left by a future Ritas or someone closely connected to his future self, are not entirely understandable to the present Ritas. This is because most of these books employ multiple layers of encryption. One of these encryption methods heavily references content from other books, many of which Ritas has never heard of, and he's not even certain if they were written about in this era. Therefore, if he truly wants to fully understand these messages from the "future," the "Hall of Wisdom" is an unavoidable destination.

"It's really become quieter than when we were in the Western Regions."

The goddess of bathing's sigh interrupted Ritas's thoughts.

Indeed, as the goddess of bathing had said, Ritas, Charlotte, Miriam, and Cortriene were on the carriage that came. But on the return journey, only Ritas and Miriam in another carriage remained.

"That's how it should be."

After a brief silence, Ritas continued,

“Even if she doesn’t stay in the Western Territory, Charlotte should go to the Bayano Academy. As for Kurt, we need to recruit another administrator to oversee the training of the seminar participants.”

Upon returning to Ers Academy, he discovered that Corteline had actually returned on her own long ago—something Ritas could never have imagined.

Therefore, he needs to recruit someone under the name of the "Tree Witch Research Institute" who can teach Melsie and the others and provide them with assistance in their daily lives.

However, where can you find a woman who is as skilled in swordsmanship as Melsie expected, who can keep the hot-tempered Noah in check as well as the leisurely Tabata, who has the title of mage, and who knows about star patterns without causing trouble?

"Speaking of recruitment! We're almost at our favorite part – the mandatory two-choice stage!"

Sensing that Ritas was feeling down, and knowing that she had inadvertently brought up something she shouldn't have, the Goddess of Bath abruptly changed the subject.

"Forced choice between two options? There was such a setting back then."

"They call it a 'setting' or something, but if you didn't know better, you'd think you were the one who transmigrated! Although it does have a 'now it's happened' feel to it. Last semester's forced choice between two options, since 'Shrimp Emperor' didn't even show up, I just chose 'Meimei'. Well, I can't really say if that counts as a choice, but anyway, she's in Ers now."

The goddess of the bath recalled the second semester, which had already deviated significantly from the game's timeline, and then her tone became subtle.
"Um... what if the mandatory two-choice requirement in the third semester has deviated to the point where it's impossible to choose anymore?"

"Very likely. However, there's also the possibility that things won't change much. If I remember correctly, the mandatory choice between two courses in the third semester was to be selected from two newly appointed general education instructors?"

"Mmm! Rather than calling them my two wives, I'd say they're two angels!"

"."

Ritas was speechless.

Although the meaning might not be quite right, the goddess saying she has two angels is strangely fitting.

"Among them, Phoebe is probably the universally acknowledged 'archangel'! In short, she's very gentle, patient, kind, and responsible! And her whole body is incredibly soft! Although I've never actually touched her!"

Who recognized it?

Ritas thought to himself, then casually asked,
"So, what course does this lecturer, Phoebe, teach?"

"Classes? What classes? Uh, who cares about that kind of thing?"

"What does a public course lecturer care about if not the course itself?"

Ritas asked incredulously.

Meanwhile, the goddess of the bath muttered words like character art, modeling, and voice acting—words that Ritas completely disregarded.

"Oh right, unlike before, this time I really did a good job of reviewing the character settings. So, I remembered quite a lot. Hmm, don't rush me! It's not that I can't remember, it's just that I was suddenly asked and my brain just couldn't process it for a moment! Ah, I remember now. Speaking of which, Archangel Phoebe is a graduate of Ers, I think, but she didn't say which year. Also, she's a member of that 'Prince' Asien? What family was she from?"

"Prince Osien? Phoebe Osien?"

A fleeting look of surprise crossed Ritas's face.

"Hmm? You know him?"

"It's less about knowing. Since 'King' is the only title on the continent, it's more difficult not to know about it."

As Ritas spoke, he gave a brief explanation to the goddess of bathing.

The Osien family's ascension to the rank of "Duke" actually occurred several hundred years ago. At that time, the Osien Duke family, with the size of a duchy, completely annexed several surrounding kingdoms, establishing a powerful nation in the land east of Holy Libera.

At the time, Duke Osien, the head of the Osien family, preferred his title of duke to that of king. Therefore, after some maneuvering with his subjects and the religious forces of the time, he eventually became the only "Duke" on the continent.

"So this is the 'male' one. I thought you had a 'female queen' or something."

The goddess of bathing said with little interest.

"."

After a moment of silence, Ritas simply recounted the aftermath of the Osien family's fate.

Despite several changes in fortune, the Osien family still retained the title of duke and a certain amount of territory. However, after losing power, the unique title of "Duke" inevitably became a stain on their family, and members of the family have always been ashamed to mention it.

However, the current head of the Osien family is a humorous man who enjoys referring to himself as a "Duke." Ironically, this self-deprecating humor has gradually improved his reputation as a "Duke."

"Hey~ As expected, as long as the world is big enough and exists long enough, interesting people and events will continue to emerge in history. Wait a minute! Weren't we talking about forced choice between two options? How did we get sidetracked to 'dukes'?"

Listening to the goddess of bathing belatedly realize that Ritas, who had already achieved his goal, simply shrugged and indicated that it had nothing to do with him.

"Never mind, Archangel Phoebe might not even show up anyway. As for the other angel, her name is 'Faith'—"

The goddess of the bath enthusiastically introduced the other candidate in the forced choice between the two.

But Ritas's thoughts had already drifted far away.

Although the disappearance of the headmaster in the first semester of the "Star Pattern" game world led to chaos within the academy and a large number of teachers leaving, there are some similarities to the situation in the real world where the academy exchange meeting in the second semester resulted in a large number of teachers and students leaving Erles.

However, this part of the timeline shouldn't actually be corrected, right?
Whether he hoped the world lines would converge or not, Ritas simply gazed out the window, slightly lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)