Prologue

It was pure coincidence.

That’s why nobody cared about it.

Whether a child is born naturally or artificially, there’s always someone there to watch them. In most cases they are welcomed, and in a few rare exceptions they are hated. But either way, in the instant they’re born, they’re the center of attention.

This girl, however, was an exception.

“Our tests show that she’s human. But we have no prior data logs,” the Liradan secretary said.

In the corner of a huge office that covered an entire floor of a high-rise building, Shoji Shiraishi, a priest of Megis, was frowning and tapping his fingers against his desk in frustration.

He had a strangely sharp gaze that suggested he’d been a wild one in his youth. And he was the father of Lily Shiraishi, the student council president at Constant Magical Academy. As his daughter’s personality might suggest, he still hadn’t settled down, even in middle age. The other priests called him nicknames such as “loose cannon” and “powder keg.”

His god, Megis, was the god of culture, arts, and education, and was generally considered to be the opposite of Shoji himself: calm and peaceful. The god’s temple wasn’t in this high-rise; it was inside a dignified building of culture, surrounded by works of art. Shoji’s job was to work behind the scenes, but that made his rank among the priests quite high. He was a high-ranking bureaucrat in the field of education.

“Why does our sect have to deal with this?” Shoji asked. He knew the reason, though, and the secretary replied just how he’d expected.

“Anyone without a citizen’s registration is an illegal immigrant, or should be, but for some reason, she’s been baptized by Megis.”

“But there’s no record of her in the data logs.”

In the Empire, humans were baptized as soon as they were born. From then on, the gods recorded data on every action they took. If they behaved properly, they would be granted the blessings of magic as a reward. That was the social welfare service the imperial government provided to its citizens.

Of course, citizen’s registrations were a separate matter. The foreigner’s registry was operated on a different system than the gods. Some people refused baptisms, and of course, foreigners weren’t baptized at all.

Shoji had been told the girl was found standing alone in the crater left after the recent battle with the Demon King.

The knights who’d brought her in said that she could speak, and knew who she was, but she seemed to know barely anything at all about where she was.

“But we have her logs from when she was found there,” the secretary said flatly.

“Then are you saying she’s an angel, come down from the heavens?” Shoji’s tone was sarcastic, but the secretary nodded.

“Perhaps so.”

“Well, that’s nice. I feel saved. It was so nice of her to choose my sect.”

“Jokes aside, you need to decide what to do with her,” the secretary said coldly.

Shoji snorted.

“The solution is obvious. We have to treat her as a foreigner. You’ve already contacted Mofah’s people, haven’t you?”

“I’ve asked that she be registered. I requested they make her an exchange student from the Union.”

The god Mofah ruled over cross-cultural interactions and negotiations.

“I see. Then I can leave the rest in my daughter’s hands, I suppose.” Shoji leaned back in his chair.

“Your daughter’s the student council president, after all.”

Shoji seemed annoyed at her words, but he was grinning.

“Correct. She gets into all kinds of trouble. I heard that she actually got into a fight with the cabinet during that last little scuffle.”

“I’m glad to hear she’s doing well. But are you sure about this? It seems that for some reason, the black mages are after this girl. There were multiple attempts to access her data.”

“The rumor spread quickly, then. They probably suspect that someone altered her logs. It’s possible someone will go after her, but I’ll leave the investigation and observation to my daughter.” Shoji called up a mana screen on his desk, which showed the girl’s portrait and profile.

Keina Doronz. That was her name.

“It’s not that I don’t trust your daughter, but are you sure about this? Shouldn’t we take her into custody ourselves?” the secretary said. Shoji crossed his arms, making no attempt to hide his annoyance.

“The Academy’s the only clue we have, so its our only option. But why did she have memories of Constant Magical Academy, anyway?”