"As expected of Professor Ismera! How can your thoughts shine as brilliantly as your noble appearance? Truly befitting an elf!"

"No... that's not what I meant..."

In the end, Professor Ismera stammered with her eyes shaking.

I widened my eyes innocently and asked:

"Then do you have some deeper meaning in mind?"

"Eh...? Ah, that's... no.... I mean..."

As Ismera floundered, Kirrin tilted her head in confusion while I snickered inwardly.

Elves consider themselves a noble race, so they never make deliberately rude remarks to others.

However, they simultaneously maintain an extremely strong sense of superiority, looking down on other races.

That's why one must always be careful when conversing with elves. Their words might sound pleasant on the surface, but hidden within is a sinister contempt for those they deem inferior.

The best way to deal with such people is to pretend to be oblivious.

When they speak in twisted, convoluted ways, responding with wide-eyed literal interpretation is the optimal strategy.

The funny thing is that while I was deliberately pretending not to understand, Principal Kirrin seemed genuinely clueless.

Dark elves are typically just as devious as regular elves, but Kirrin is so unlike a typical dark elf. How adorable.

Anyway, Ismera must have been bursting with frustration since entering the principal's office.

Still, an elf is an elf. She won't reveal her true colors until the very end.

Shall we wrap things up for today?

Now that she knows her smiling passive-aggressive tactics won't work on me, she probably won't try any more tricks.

"Anyway, I, Dian the human, have gained a renewed sense of awe toward elves as a race. It's a tremendous honor to have someone so beautiful both inside and out here at the academy."

"I... um... yes, thank you..."

Ismera, who had been about to say something, just opened and closed her mouth before averting her gaze and mumbling a response.

Kirrin's eyes widened in surprise at Ismera's reaction.

This must be her first time seeing an elf flustered, just as it's my first time seeing such a scatterbrained dark elf.

"Shall we continue with the report?"

"Oh, right."

Kirrin, who had been spacing out, hurriedly grabbed her pen, and I continued my report on the Combat Department.

"And the church has dispatched holy priests to strengthen the infirmary's capabilities, which has enabled us to conduct more daring practical training."

"Mmhmm... what else...?"

"I've established maintenance plans for all the long-unused outdoor training grounds, and they'll all be restored within a month."

"Mmhmm... and...?"

"I've added advanced courses to the curriculum. We need specialized experts for this, and I'm planning to recruit several active-duty personnel."

"Mmhmm... recruiting experts..."

With her eyes fixed on the report and her pen moving, Kirrin continued to respond with "Mmhmm..." It's quite adorable, actually.

Glancing over, I noticed Ismera wrinkling her brow in disgust every time Kirrin said "Mmhmm..." but quickly putting on a smile whenever she caught me looking.

"And please ask for a larger budget allocation. We need to purchase weapons for practice, horse gear, and various other items."

"You don't need to ask the Imperial Castle about that. We have plenty of budget."

Kirrin answered with a rather confident expression.

Come to think of it, Kirrin had previously pleaded with me for the umpteenth time, saying they had accumulated a lot of budget that I could use freely.

Just how much have they been saving to keep saying that?

"How much do we have?"

"Enough that we won't run short."

Hmm, I see...

"If money is so abundant, Principal, let's start a business."

"A business?"

"Let's create a shopping district in the academy."

"Shopping district? What are you talking about?"

I've been thinking about something.

Our academy is large enough to encompass an entire village, filled with all kinds of facilities and numerous permanent residents.

Students, faculty, facility management staff, security forces, and their families.

If this were a modern university of similar size, there would be multiple franchises established, but there's nothing like that here.

At best, there are academy-run shops, but they're already overwhelmed just serving the students.

So if faculty members want to go shopping, they have to take a carriage past the academy gates into the city center, which is extremely inconvenient.

Even I feel burdened having to ask Olicia every time I want something specific.

"We could repurpose unused buildings for civilian businesses. Restaurants, bakeries, salons, shops, bathhouses, and so on. The academy would collect rent and a certain commission. We'd conduct annual evaluations and replace any businesses with poor quality."

"My, that's truly an innovative idea."

While Kirrin still looked puzzled, Ismera spoke up.

"Our Head Professor of Combat is quite knowledgeable about business management as well. If you were to run a business, you would surely be very successful... wouldn't you..."

When I smiled at her, Ismera flinched and avoided my gaze.

She means I should act like a proper professor instead of dabbling in petty money-making schemes.

As they say, old habits die hard. Even after being put in her place earlier, she's at it again. Tsk, tsk.

"Anyway, what do you think, Principal? About my idea? Nobody loses, right?"

"It's not a bad idea... but since it has nothing to do with education and training, what if the Imperial Castle says something?"

"How is it unrelated? It's for the students' welfare. Good food, good clothes, and good recreation lead to better academic performance."

"Hmm, that's true..."

"If you're really worried, write this next to it: 'Proposer: Dian.' Like that."

"Write your name? That won't do!"

Kirrin exclaimed.

"What if you fall out of favor with the Security Chief!"

"Would you rather fall out of favor yourself?"

"Eek!"

"Hurry and write it. It's too inconvenient to live here. If we can't create a shopping district, I'll resign."

Kirrin hastily wrote down my name. Seeing this, I laughed openly while Ismera secretly scowled.

Afterward, Ismera reported on matters related to the Theory Department, and Kirrin recorded everything, neatly organizing the report.

"Mmhmm, this is done... this is also fine... everything looks good."

Checking each item with her pen for typos and omissions, Kirrin finally smiled.

"Now we're all done. Good work, both of you."

I just realized that Kirrin's smile is surprisingly cute. To think that "cute" would suit a dark elf—truly amusing.

# # # # #

After the meeting ended, Ismera greeted Professor Dian as they left the principal's office.

"Good work, Professor Dian. I was deeply moved by your sacrifice for the academy's development."

"Not at all. By the way, I'll ask Professor Waver to prepare some jerky for you. It's really delicious. You didn't throw away the jerky I gave you earlier, did you?"

Ismera, who had planned to throw it in the trash as soon as she got to her office, flinched and patted her robe pocket.

"I'm keeping it right here. By the way, Professor Dian."

Ismera held up the pouches she was carrying. These were the tea leaf pouches that Kirrin had asked the administrative director to set aside for Ismera.

"Do you perhaps enjoy tea as a hobby?"

"Haha, someone like me? That's something the Principal gave especially to you, Professor Ismera, so please enjoy it at your leisure."

As Professor Dian politely pushed the pouch away, Ismera had no choice but to embrace it while maintaining a dignified smile.

"Then I'll be going now. Perhaps you could join me for tea in my office sometime."

"Really? I'd be delighted. I'll definitely stop by."

"I'll be waiting."

After parting with Professor Dian, Ismera stopped, turned around, and glared at Dian's retreating figure while grinding her teeth.

Originally, Ismera's main target had been Kirrin, and Dian wasn't quite at that level.

However, through today's regular report meeting, Dian had rapidly risen to become Ismera's new primary target.

It was unbearably irritating how someone who entered the academy through mere coincidental connections was interfering and meddling as if they belonged.

Moreover, it was frustratingly maddening how he completely misunderstood her words and kept saying different things.

She truly... truly hated him enough to kill him.

After leaving the main building, Ismera walked expressionlessly, took out the jerky from her pocket, and threw it into a flower bed.

"Hello, Professor."

"Yes, hello. The weather is quite nice today."

Ismera, who had just started tearing open the tea pouch, gave a warm smile to the students greeting her.

This seemed too messy to throw away carelessly, so she decided to take it to her office for now.

Clutching the half-torn pouch tightly, Ismera continued walking, filled with anger.

"Professor, good day to you."

"Hello. You're always working so hard. Ho ho."

What? Creating a shopping district inside the academy? First an unqualified person becomes a professor, and now this—truly the end of times.

There's barely enough focus to teach students properly, and now he wants to collect rent from merchants? Insane.

The Imperial Castle will surely rage furiously and demand punishment for whoever proposed this crazy idea. And the principal responsible as well.

He probably thought it was something great and wanted to take all the credit by having his name written as the proposer, but that will come back to haunt him.

That stupid dark elf girl is grinning happily, not realizing she's being dragged into the pit alongside him.

If only they would both disappear in this opportunity.

A few days later, Ismera heard news that left her dumbfounded.

The Imperial Castle had responded very positively to the proposal and promised full support for the business initiative.

What...? What is really going on here...?

First with the Duke's visit incident, and now this—why do things keep turning out this way?

What in the world is happening?!